Book 3: Fire
by Bast13
Summary: Eira's adventure in the A:TLA universe continues. After the fall of Ba Sing Se, she and the Gaang are travelling through the Fire Nation. Her actions and past are weighing heavily on her mind, but with the war almost over, will she be able to change that?
1. Chapter 1

**The start of season 3, the beginning of the end. Thank you for reviewing Book 2, you really helped inspire me to continue and start with this.**

 **I hope you enjoy :D**

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Chapter 1- The Beginning

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"So… what know?" Toph asked as they flew further and further away from Ba Sing Se.

The atmosphere around them was thick and heavy. No one had said anything after Kuei and Toph wasn't one to stand the silence.

The sun had completely set and they were flying aimlessly through the darkness. It was a cloudy night, so they couldn't see any stars. They could barely see the moon.

It was also pretty cold but Eira didn't feel it. She didn't know whether it was from the breathing technique Aang taught her that regulated your temperature, or just the fact that she was starting to feel numb.

"We…" Sokka gripped the reigns tightly. "We should head over to Chameleon Bay, where our dad is," he said. "We'll have to tell them what happened. We can make a plan after that."

Eira felt awful as she stared at Katara holding Aang. He was alive, of course he was. Katara healed him in the show and it would only be a few weeks at most until he woke up, but Eira couldn't help scolding herself. With her it was three-on-two against Zuko and Azula. Aang shouldn't have needed to go into the Avatar state. He shouldn't have needed to come back to Ba Sing Se at all if it wasn't for her.

Her nails dug into her arm. She was so stupid! Why did she even have to check on Azula?! There was nothing gained from it and it would've given her at least a bit more time. They could've received the Fire Nation's reply in that time and she would've helped make a positive difference in the war. But no. What did she contribute at all in their journey? Nothing. She was just a stupid tag-along who couldn't help even if she wanted to.

Eira cursed the spirits. She added nothing to this world. She was pointless. Aang would have children. More airbenders would be in the world even without her.

Her eyes felt heavy from exhaustion and crying, and she drifted off into an uneasy sleep, slumping against the side of the saddle. She felt Toph fall sideways onto her in the same way, leaning against her shoulder as sleep took them.

o.O.o

"Gah!" Eira was jolted awake by the impact of Appa landing on the ground. It was still night and by the position of the moon, Eira guessed it was about 2 or 3 am. Eira yawned. "I guess we're here?"

Chameleon Bay was pretty, even at night. It was a small sandy area surrounded by hills, creating a good cover. The water washed gently against the shore and the few boats docked bumped into each other with small _thunks_ as the waves moved them.

A collection of tents were pitched away from the water and a small fire pit glowed brightly. About half a dozen men were surrounding Appa and even with limited light, Eira could easily guess that they were the Southern Water Tribe men.

"Sokka!" A tall man ran over to them and hugged Sokka as he climbed down Appa.

"Dad… we failed," Sokka admitted quietly, voice cracking slightly.

Hadoka, Sokka's father, looked up to the saddle and his eyes widened as he saw Katara holding Aang, and Kuei and Bosco.

"I see. You should all come inside the tent," he said. "You need rest."

Appa lowered his tail for everyone to walk down. Eira helped Katara with Aang and they both carried him to one of the tents.

It wasn't the best place for a vegetarian and animal-lover like Aang. It was just like Bato's tent, covered in animal pelts, leather, and fur. Luckily, Aang wouldn't wake up in it. Katara gently lowered him onto the roll mat and set a blanket over him. She still looked a bit misty-eyed, but she had recovered a lot of her strength. Eira hadn't.

She walked out of the tent without a word and was about to go back to sleep but a man stopped her.

"My name is Hadoka," he introduced. "I'm Sokka and Katara's father. You must be Eira."

Eira nodded.

"I know. Nice to meet you," she said blankly. "I'm sorry, but I'm really tired. I can't really talk now."

Hadoka nodded in understanding.

"Either way, it's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you from Sokka and Katara."

Eira nodded again and went into the tent, falling asleep instantly.

She dreamt of her family and they seemed to respond to what she did just like before but when she woke up, her memories of it were blurred and her head hurt. It felt annoyingly like _déja vu_.

"Now, can you please tell me what happened?" Hadoka asked after breakfast. He and Bato were sat in front of Sokka, Eira, Toph, and Katara in the main tent. None of them looked like they had had good sleep, with dark shadows under their eyes and muted expressions but Sokka began to talk.

"Azula, the princess of the Fire Nation, had invaded Ba Sing Se," he said. "She talked the Dai Li into helping her and together they caught Eira and tried to attack the Earth King. Toph and I managed to rescue him while Aang and Katara went down to fight Azula."

"During the fight, Aang went into the Avatar state and Azula shot him with lightning," Katara said. "I managed to heal him but…" she trailed off as she looked back at the tent entrance. "He hasn't woken up yet."

"It'll take him weeks," Eira said in a small voice.

Hadoka sighed.

"I was scared of that," he said. "With Avatar Aang in this state, I'm not sure how much we can do, but we need to regroup and focus."

He held out a map and spread it out in front of them. He pointed to where they were.

"We've been in Chameleon Bay for a while," he explained. "We've been tracking the Fire Nation's movements. Now, I know we won't have the forces for an all-out invasion like we initially planned, but the eclipse still robs the firebenders of their powers. It's a huge tactical advantage. We can still use it."

Sokka leant over the map.

"We could launch a smaller scale invasion," he said. His eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers as he thought of something. "We know people in these places," he said pointing to areas around the Earth Kingdom. "They're on the way. We can send messages to them, or recruit people for the invasion."

"What skills do these people have?" Hadoka asked, interested.

"Well, the people here can see waterbending to move plants. They're really strong and good with it. And the people here." He pointed his finger at a different place. "There's this one guy who's a genius inventor. I have a few plans. He could make them work."

Hadoka nodded, then frowned.

"Our boats wouldn't be able to make it past the Fire Nation. Their ships are stationed everywhere around the area." He thought deeply. "But we should be able to sneak through to send a few messages. We'll be able to deal with the Fire Nation after that."

"How long do we have left?" Toph asked. "Do we have time to do all of that?"

"The eclipse is in… about a month and a half away," Sokka answered.

Eira's mind started to wander. She didn't have much to add and not much could get between Sokka and his dad whilst planning.

The "meeting" lasted about an hour as Sokka and Hadoka worked through the details and eventually they left the tent.

The next couple of days felt too fast and too slow at the same time. Everyone was packing up the camp and putting things back on the boat and they said their goodbyes to Kuei, who had decided to leave with Bosco on a journey of self-discovery to learn how to be a normal Earth Kingdom citizen. Not that there was much of an Earth Kingdom anymore.

The Fire Nation had responded to the letter, sending troops and troops to Ba Sing Se along with airships and tanks in an attempt to storm the city to rescue Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee, only to find that Ba Sing Se was already theirs. These reinforcements made it impossible to even get near Ba Sing Se so they decided to leave as soon as possible after the news reached them.

"Look out!" One of the men hissed. A silence washed over everyone on the ship. Out of the mist in the sea, a dark steel Fire Nation ship emerged.

It cut through the waters and sailed right past them. Katara subtly thickened the mist around them, creating a cover. The boats all stopped, hoping and praying that the ship would not notice them. This had become an annoying routine and it was increasing in frequency as they sailed around the Earth Kingdom, trying to get messages out to people they knew. They could barely move an inch without a Fire Nation ship suddenly appearing and stopping them again.

The boat passed and everyone sighed in relief. Toph groaned loudly and hugged the side of the boat.

"Can we stop doing this? My stomach can't take it anymore," she complained.

"I wish we could, but the ships will only increase in number," Hadoka said.

"Then we should try and take one of their ships," Sokka suggested cheerfully. "We should wait here, Eira and Katara can whip up a bigger cover and we can hijack the next ship that passes. It's easier to blend in than sneak past."

Hadoka thought deeply, contemplating their skills and chances.

"Sokka's right," he announced. "Our Water Tribe boats will only hinder us. We will wait under cover, and attack a Fire Nation ship. Prepare our weapons and supplies. This may be dangerous."

 _May?_ Eira thought glumly. Appa growled, mimicking her thoughts. Appa had being floating and swimming behind them. He had been itching to fly, but he was clearly worried about Aang and he was too big a target to miss.

Eira stood next to Katara, staff ready to help with the cover. Katara glanced back at the boat. Aang was sleeping inside the cabin.

"He should be fine," Eira said. "He won't wake up for another week or two."

Katara looked down at her feet.

"I know, but I'm still worried about him."

"I am too."

"Positions!" The man hissed again.

Katara raised her hands and spread them out, the water turned to mist and completely covered the boats. Eira twirled her staff and it spread further and further, going high enough to cover even the deck of the warship.

"Now, now!"

Katara took a deep breath and launched the boat upwards in a massive wave. Eira jumped up and off the boat, landing on the deck silently, her impact making no sound. The others followed suit, even if they were a lot louder than she was.

Eira snuck through the hallways of the ship, having bad memories of Zuko and Zhao return to her as she did, and occasionally peaked through doors to try and find the control room.

"It's this way," Sokka whispered, pointing to the left corridor. Eira nodded and slowly opened the heavy metal door. It creaked.

"Who's there!?" A loud voice boomed. Eira took a deep breath and darted it, standing sturdily on the ground and moving her hands apart slowly. The three men in the room staggered and collapsed as the air thinned, each one landing on the floor with a large _thud_ due to their armour. Eira breathed out and the room returned to normal.

"You know, that trick is awesome," Sokka commented, tying up the three men together. "If a bit scary."

Eira didn't respond. She hadn't been taught it by Aang, but after observing how Katara could change the state of water from mist or ice, she wanted to see if she could change air pressure and stuff. Turns out it worked best with earthbender-like forms.

Sokka quickly analysed the room and smiled as he saw the wheel. He rubbed his hands together in excitement and turned it.

The ship lurched to the side and Eira almost fell over, trying her best to regain her balance. Sokka held onto the wheel for support and the three men fell onto their faces.

"Sokka!"

"Sorry."

"So, what's the signal?" Eira asked.

"Oh yeah, it's…" Sokka's hand hovered around the room, before settling onto the rope dangling next to him. He pulled it and an ear-splitting _HOOOONK_ sounded out. Sokka pulled it again, smiling like a child. "I've always wanted to do something like that."

Eira looked out of the front window onto the deck. A pile of guards was forming in the centre, with a couple of Southern Water Tribe men standing guard and smiling happily.

Katara swirled a stream of water around them and froze it, binding them all. One of the men looked up through the window and waved, giving them the all clear.

"That was easy," Eira commented. She honestly hadn't expected it to be that easy.

It was just a quick matter of Katara lifting the boats up onto the deck and unloading everything. Luckily, there were quite a few cabins that were supposed to house all of the workers so everyone had a place to sleep and there were also a lot of spare uniforms. Perfect for disguises.

Eira, Katara, and Toph wore simple Fire Nation cloaks as the uniforms didn't really fit or suit them, but Sokka and the other men wore full Fire Nation Uniforms. It took a while to get used to. Eira almost blasted Sokka off the ship because she forgot he wasn't actually from the Fire Nation. Along with the disguise, Eira started to dye her hair black like when she went to the Earth King's party. It was just easier for everyone and Eira didn't want to be the reason for them being found out.

"Hello, Momo," Eira said as she sat on the deck for some fresh air. Momo curled up on her lap happily and chittered. Another week had passed and Aang still hadn't woken up. To be honest, Eira was getting scared. She had no idea whether or not the situation had played out differently due to this part not being covered by the show so she had no real frame of reference for whether or not things were okay.

"Ah!" A young boy's voice echoed through the open door inside the ship and Eira jumped. Was that…

Aang sprinted out of the ship, onto the deck. Bandages were still covering his torso and his head was covered with short dark brown hair.

"Aang!" Eira jumped up and ran over to him but he turned around sharply, eyes wide with fear. "Aang, it's me, Eira," she explained. "You're okay, you need to rest."

"What?" he said, confused. "But you look like you're Fire Nation. We're on their ship. Wh-What happened?"

"Twinkle Toes! That's got to be you!" Toph and Katara came barrelling through the open doorway, beaming.

"Aang, you're awake!" Katara exclaimed happily.

"Are you sure?" Aang rubbed his eyes. "I feel like I'm dreaming."

Katara hugged Aang but he was still looking overwhelmed.

"You're not dreaming, you're finally awake," Katara reassured him.

Sokka walked over, in full uniform complete with the helmet and joined his sister in hugging Aang.

"Aang, good to see you back with the living, buddy!"

"Guys!" Eira shouted. Aang looked like he was hyperventilating. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates. Katara and Sokka jumped away from him, just in time for Aang to faint. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the floor, the two siblings catching him before he hit his head.

Everyone, including Appa surrounded them.

"Katara, what happened?" Hadoka ran over to them and Katara gestured helplessly to Aang.

"He just woke up, but he fainted again."

"He's overwhelmed and exhausted," Eira said. "We need to take him back to his room. He needs to calm down."

Sokka and Katara quickly carried him back to his cabin and rested him down on his bed.

"I knew we should've taken this stuff down," Katara muttered, pulling down the Fire nation posters and other decorations.

Eira nodded. That was one of the first things she did with her cabin. It was rather impossible to sleep with massive red banners of the Fire Nation hanging around.

"He should wake up soon, Sokka take off your helmet," Eira said.

Sokka quickly threw off his helmet and set it on a small table behind him. Katara knelt next to Aang's bed and frowned sympathetically.

"This must be a lot for him."

Aang rolled over, groaning quietly and blearily opening his eyes.

"Katara?" he murmured.

"Yes, Aang. Are you feeling alright?" Katara asked.

"My head's killing me," he complained, sitting up. Katara passed him a simple robe to cover his bandages. "Why are we on a Fire Nation ship?" he asked. "Why does everyone look like this? And why am I the only one out of it?"

"You just need to take it easy, okay? You got hurt pretty bad." Katara smiled at him, trying to raise his spirits. "I like your hair."

"I have hair!?" Aang raised his hands to his head and recoiled at the feel of his hair. He stared at his hands. "How long was I out?"

"A few weeks."

"We decided to sail to the Fire Nation, but we needed a disguise," Sokka explained. "So, that's why we're on this ship."

"And my hair didn't exactly look Fire Nation," Eira added, gesturing to her now black hair. She looked at Katara and Aang and nodded to herself. "I'm going to leave you guys alone. I think after that, you need a healing session." Aang looked too weary to continue further.

"Yeah, we'll talk more later," Sokka said.

o.O.o

"…we've been travelling west ever since. We crossed through the Serpent's Pass a few days ago and we've seen a few Fire Nation ships but none have bothered us," Sokka concluded. Aang listened intently as Sokka went into detail about their situation and thankfully, he was taking it a lot better than before. At least he didn't look like he was about to faint.

"So what now?" he asked, turning to Hadoka. Hadoka was poised over a map while sitting down on a crate as a make-shift chair. They were all out on the deck and this area had become one of their primary planning spots.

"We're working on a modified version of the invasion plan," he explained.

"Sokka's invasion plan," Katara corrected. Eira found it strange that Katara was lacking the animosity with her father that she had in the show but after listening around, she's apparently gotten most of it out yelling at him when she went to see him with Sokka.

"Yes, Sokka's plan. Without the Earth King's armies, we won't be able to mount the massive invasion we wanted, but the eclipse still leaves them vulnerable, especially with a large portion of their troops being sent off to the Earth Kingdom and Ba Sing Se in particular."

"So, it'll be smaller, but we're collecting a ragtag group of allies and friends from around the Earth Kingdom. We already ran into Pipsqueak and The Duke." Sokka gestured to the large and small duo. Pipsqueak was casually eating a bowl of noodles, The Duke sitting on one of his large shoulders.

"Good to see you again, Aang!" The Duke said cheerfully.

"And the best part is," Sokka continued. "The eclipse isn't even our biggest advantage!" His voiced dropped to a whisper. "We have a secret… you!"

"Me?" Aang exclaimed.

"Sokka!" Eira snapped. "Not now."

"What is it?" Aang asked, looking between the two. "How am I your secret?"

"I'm sorry, Aang, but I know you won't react well to that information. It's not important at the moment," Eira said, trying to brush off his question. "You need to rest and recover first."

"Eira, he can take it. It's a good thing," Sokka insisted. "Aang, the whole world thinks you're dead." Sokka smiled and Aang's face sank into an expression of despair.

"The whole world thinks I'm dead!" Aang jumped to his feet, gesturing with his arms. "How is that a good thing?! That's terrible!"

"No, it's great!" Sokka said, approaching Aang and still smiling. "The Fire Nation won't be hunting us anymore and they won't be expecting anything on the Day of Black Sun."

Aang stumbled backwards, holding his head.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. You have no idea. This is so messed up," Aang said.

"Ship in the east!" A man called out. Eira looked to the side and, sure enough, another Fire Nation boat was sailing towards them.

"I'll handle this," Aang said. "The Avatar is back." Aang flicked open his glider and promptly fell to his knees, grunting in pain.

"Aang, they don't know that we're not Fire Nation," Katara explained calmly, helping him back up. "We can settle this without any problem."

Aang stared at the approaching ship, beads of sweat on his face. Then, he looked away in resignation, and closed his glider.

"Just stay calm!" Hadoka ordered, putting on his helmet. "Bato and I will take care of this."

Pipsqueak and The Duke went over to Appa and lead him over to the small hiding place they'd made as Katara, Sokka, and Toph lead Aang down into the small ammo room under the deck, staying in the entry so they could still see what was going on.

Eira jumped up and sat next to the window to the control room, hiding herself in the small overhang that she'd found a good vantage point.

The other Fire Nation ship sailed in parallel to their ship and after anchoring, two soldiers laid a small plank across. What looked like the other ship's captain passed over onto their boat, accompanied by the two soldiers, to talk to Hadoka and Bato.

"Commander, why are you off course?" he demanded. "All Western Fleet ships are supposed to be moving toward Ba Sing Se to support the occupation!"

"Actually, we're from the Eastern Fleet. We have orders to deliver some cargo," Hadoka quickly lied. That was their cover. Simply delivering cargo.

"Ahhh ... Eastern Fleet. Well, nice of Admiral Chan to let us know he was sending one of his ships our way," the captain said grouchily.

"I'm sure Admiral Chan meant no disrespect, sir," Bato offered.

"I mean how hard is it to write a quick note and send a hawk our way?"

Hadoka and Bato quickly glanced at each other.

"We'll send… two hawks next time. Just to make sure you get the message," Hadoka said, bowing to the captain.

The captain bowed back and turned to leave with his soldiers. One of them whispered in his ear and Eira noted his surprised expression but he continued walking back to his ship.

"They know!" Toph popped out of her hiding place and dug her hands into the metal of the ship. The metal creaked and warped in a fast shock up to the bridge, sending it flying forwards, pushing the two ships apart.

Katara jumped out and raised her hands, creating a massive wave to send their ship speeding away and Eira ducked down to bend the created mist into a fog, covering the opposing ship. They departed quickly, travelling at a speed they had never tried in the ship.

Everyone stared at the mist-shrouded ship in the distance, tense and waiting for their move. Out of the mist, a shadow was getting bigger and bigger, taking shape into a-

"Fireball!" A large rock lit on fire came barrelling out of the mist, clearly aimed wildly as it flew right over them.

"We need to clear out of here!" Hadoka ordered, signalling to the control room. The men inside were doing their best to try and turn around and sail off but they were clearly panicking.

"Load the Toph!" Toph yelled as Pipsqueak placed a bolder in front of her and The Duke pointed her in the right direction. She punched her fist at the rock and it launched itself at the other ship, striking its deck cleanly.

Pispqueak loaded more rocks in front of her and Toph sent them flying at the fireballs filling the sky. They collided with explosions of dust and fire, stopping them from getting to the ship. None of the fireballs were well-aimed due to the mist cover but that was fading quickly.

A harpoon shot out at their ship, piercing the hull. Water flowed in the boat began to rock but Katara quickly froze it, blocking the water.

"We need to get away!" Sokka said, standing in the entrance of Aang's hiding place.

"No, duh!" Toph retorted, preparing to launch another boulder.

"Watch out!" Pipsqueak and The Duke pulled Toph out of the way right as a fireball flew right at them and hit right where she had been standing, destroying all of her ammo.

"I can't just do nothing!" Aang protested, trying to push past Sokka.

"Aang, no!" Sokka insisted, taking Aang's staff from him. "You're still hurt, and you have to stay secret. We can handle this."

Aang's frown deepened. He snatched his staff back and sat down, frustrated.

Eira felt sorry for Aang but she couldn't focus too must on him as she and Katara were trying to put out the two more fireballs that had dented the deck floor.

Katara raised the water against the side of the ship and Eira turned it to mist, spreading it around them and putting the fires out.

"How are we doing?" Toph asked.

"Things couldn't get much worse," Sokka admitted. A massive serpent burst out of the water with a big crash as the water flew up around it. It roared as it snapped its tongue around, trying to focus it's weird seahorse eyes at whatever disturbed it.

Sokka and Eira stared up at the thing in horror.

"The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?" Sokka shouted above the noise.

"You make it too easy!" Toph said, trying to keep steady as the boat began to rock backwards and forwards.

Eira held her staff tightly in her hands, preparing to defend the ship but thankfully she didn't need to. One of the fireballs from the other ship collided with the serpent's head and it whipped its neck around, turning to face its attacker.

It screeched at the ship and dove at it. It took no time with tangling it up with its body, trapping it.

"Thank you, the universe!" Sokka said in relief.

"Now's our opportunity!" Hadoka said, motioning more to his men. The boat picked up steam and they sailed away as fast as possible.

Eira sat down, taking a deep breath of relief, and Aang walked out of his hiding place and stormed into the ship, probably going back to his room. Eira found herself staring at the door. She wanted to say something. But what?

Eira spent the rest of the afternoon not doing much, still refusing to listen to herself and talk to Aang. What happened at Ba Sing Se felt like a dumbbell was resting on her chest, making her feel heavy and seeing Aang look so upset at something she'd tried to fix, but ended up happening anyway added even more.

"Hey, Eira!" Eira flinched, looking around for the voice. She looked down from her little place and saw Sokka, Katara, and Toph. "Get down there, we're going into town to find some food," Sokka called. Eira jumped down, landing lightly on a small cushion of air.

"Is Aang coming?" she asked.

"We're just going to ask him," Katara said.

"Alright."

They all went to Aang's room and Eira knocked on the door, but Sokka, Katara, and Toph went in without waiting for his response.

"Hey, Aang! We're going into town to find some food," Toph announced.

Aang sat up on his bed, smiling slightly. His stomach growled.

"Well, I am pretty hungry. Maybe dinner's a good idea," he said.

"Here," Sokka said, extending his hand to Aang and offering a red bandana. "Tie this around your head. It'll cover your arrow."

Aang stared at the bandana in disgust. He huffed and crossed his arms, lying back down on his bed.

"I'm not going out if I can't wear my arrow proudly!"

"Aang, be practical," Sokka pleaded. "Come on, Eira changed her hair so we wouldn't be noticed.

"Sokka," Eira shot him a glare and he stopped.

"You guys go," Katara said, putting a hand on Sokka and Eira's shoulders. "We'll catch up to you."

They weren't particularly happy with it, but the three of them left Katara and Aang.

"Sokka, you're being tactless," Eira commented as they walked away.

"You're blaming _me_?!"

"No, but you're not helping Aang. Be sensitive for once."

"But it's true! He can't just go into the Fire Nation with a massive blue arrow on his forehead giving him away. It's the only advantage we have with the Earth King's forces out."

"But now Aang feels like he's failed. He'll do something stupid and reckless and I'll know it's my fault," Eira said.

Sokka and Toph looked a bit taken aback.

"How would it be your fault?" Toph asked.

Eira sighed and brushed her hair back out of her face.

"Like I told you, I saw a lot of what's happening now before I got here," she said. "In Ba Sing Se, I saw that it wasn't going to be Suki."

"But why didn't you say anything?" Sokka asked.

"Because it changed when Suki actually came to Ba Sing Se before leaving. I thought there was a chance it would be her but when it wasn't and it turned out to be Azula like I saw. I told the Earth King and they actually go caught." Eira laughed humourlessly. "Imagine what would've happened with the Fire Nation's princess as a bargaining chip as well as a full invasion plan with the Earth King's forces."

Sokka looked wistful as he imagined the scene.

"That does sound great. The war would almost definitely be over by them."

"Exactly, but the Dai Li broke them out and I got myself caught, leading to the exact same situation I saw with Ba Sing Se gone. Don't you understand? Aang got hit by Azula and is feeling guilty over something _I_ practically caused."

"Come on, Eira. You can't blame yourself for that! From what Katara said the Dai Li were swarming you. There was no way you'd be able to fight them all off," Sokka said reassuringly.

Eira clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as a wave of hatred and fear washed over her.

"I should've told the Earth King to disband them." She took a deep breath and unclenched her fists, more relaxed. She smiled at Sokka and Toph. "I guess I'll tell him after the invasion."

"Yeah, the Fire Nation is going down," Toph agreed.

Just like when she told them about how she saw everything ahead of time, Eira felt a lot lighter. Talking really _did_ help.

They changed the subject to small talk as they walked down the ship to the dock and as they did Katara ran out after them. She looked disappointed and Aang wasn't with her. Eira's heart sank.

"You didn't convince him, did you?" Eira said.

Katara shook her head.

"He needs time."

No one felt the need to add anything after that and they continued their walk into the town. Buying the food was surprisingly easy and quick. Eira suspected that Sokka's military armour helped them get faster service. Eira didn't exactly like it, but the faster they could leave was always better.

"What did he say?" Eira asked Katara as they picked up their supplies from a stall. "I mean, just before you left."

"He said that… he needs to redeem himself. He needs his honour back," she said, visibly saddened.

Eira cursed under her breath and hit her head with her palm.

"I forgot!" she hissed.

"What?! What is it?" Katara asked, worried.

"Aang's going to leave. We need to get back."

"What? How do you-oh." Katara covered her mouth in realisation. "Is this one of the things you saw."

"It was getting fuzzy with the details, but Aang runs away. We need to get back."

Katara nodded and after gesturing her worry to Sokka and the direction of the boat the two of them ran off back.

Eira held Katara's hand as they ran and with her airbending she decreased the resistance so they could get their faster. They got to the ship in no time and after dumping their bags on the deck Katara and Eira entered Aang's room, without knocking.

His room was dark and his glider was gone. Momo was chittering unhappily on Aang's empty bed and what Aang had done dawned on Katara.

"Oh no…"

Katara ran back out of the room, eyes full of tears and Eira followed her, feeling heavy once more. Why couldn't she remember it sooner! She knew Aang left! She just forgot when!

"What's wrong, Katara?" Hadoka was comforting Katara on the deck. No one else was around in the darkness of the evening.

"He left," Katara said, trying to wipe tears from her eyes.

"What?"

"Aang. He took his glider and disappeared. He has this ridiculous notion that he has to save the world alone, that it's all his responsibility and he doesn't need us."

Hadoka hugged his daughter.

"Maybe it's his way of protecting you," he suggested.

"But he's not! He's injured and I can help him, but he just left. We should all be doing this together."

"We'll find him. Aang is strong and so are we." Hadoka tried for a smile. "We'll find him. Just like how you found me."

o.O.o

"Aang! I see him! It's Aang!" Sokka called out as they ran across the rocky hot land towards Aang. He was lying near the base of a volcano, just not unconscious.

Katara sprinted over to him and wrapped him in a tight hug.

"You're okay!" she cried happily. Everyone gathered around Aang for a group hug. Even Momo and Appa joined them.

"I have so much to do," Aang muttered as he detached himself from the hug. Katara smiled at him.

"I know, but you'll have our help."

"You didn't think you could get out of training just by coming to the Fire Nation, did you?" Toph asked, smiling mischievously.

"What about the invasion?" Aang asked, still bewildered at the sight of them all.

"We're going to join up with my dad and the invasion force the day of the eclipse," Sokka explained.

"For now, we're going to travel through the Fire Nation to get into position," Eira added. She held out the broken staff in her hands gingerly, as if it was about to burst into flames. "We… also found your glider."

Aang looked sadly at the broken object but he took it, eyes closed with acceptance. He walked up the base of the volcano and looked down, the orange light of the lava illuminating his face.

"It's okay. If someone saw it, it would give away my identity. It's better for now that no one knows I'm alive." He threw his glider onto the molten rock and it caught fire, slowly turning to ash.

Eira nodded.

"Nice to see you back, Aang."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this chapter.  
** **Please review and tell me what you think :D  
Eira will now be in the Fire Nation, disguise and all. I'm actually excited!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Now, only a week later, Chapter 2.**

 **I don't have a lot to say about it but thanks to lostgamer64 and ObsessedwReading for the reviews. I'm glad you liked the first chapter. The Puppetmaster will definitely be interesting. At least, I hope so.**

 **I hope you like this, and please review :D**

* * *

Chapter 2: The Fire Nation

* * *

"Bleh," Eira complained, brushing down her hair and patting at her soaking clothes. Everything was soaking. Appa's saddle, their stuff, everything. Travelling inside of a cloud may look nice but the constantly swirling water vapour was _awful_. Not to mention cold. Eira, Aang, and Katara were in charge of keeping the cover over Appa with Sokka leading the way, not that anyone could really see anything.

"Shh!" Sokka hissed. Eira made a face but he didn't see it.

"I think I see a cave below," Aang said, peering out of the cloud.

"Shh! I said keep quiet!" Sokka commanded, making even more noise.

Appa descended down and Aang and Eira did their best to keep the water vapour around him, dispersing it quickly as they landed.

Sokka jumped to the ground and scanned the area. Eira practically fell off, complaining internally at how gross and heavy a wet cloak felt. The land was nice. It was quite rocky and hilly but it was boiling and Eira was still as good with heat as she was in the desert. Unfortunately, it was the _Fire_ Nation and it was around summer. She had a feeling it was going to stay hot.

"Good job with the cloud camo, but next time, let's disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud that know how to keep its mouth shut." Sokka sent a pointed look at Eira and Aang.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want the birds to hear us talking and turn us in," Toph said sarcastically, crossing her arms as Sokka continued to look around.

Sokka whirled around and threw a sideways glance at the four toucan-puffin birds sitting on the rock behind him.

"Hey! This is enemy territory. Those are enemy birds."

"And that is just paranoia," Eira added as a bird squawked, unimpressed.

Eira turned towards the hilly-er part.

"I think the cave Aang saw if up there," she said, pointing towards it.

"Good work!" Sokka said. The hiked up the small hill and Sokka stood proudly in the entry of the cave. It was nothing to write home about. Just a dark, cramped hole in the mountain with tons of rock above it ready to collapse on you.

Eira felt herself tense as she got close to it. She looked up and froze, thinking of how suffocating it was to be underground. She shivered. Nope. That wasn't going to happen. Eira sat next to the entry, not going inside.

"We won't have to spend _all_ of our time in caves… right?" Eira said meekly. She felt so stupid but she tensed and went cold whenever she thought about even going inside.

"Well, this is how we'll be living until the invasion. Cave, after cave… after cave."

Eira went colder with every repetition of the word and Katara seemed to notice how pale her face had gone and looked concerned as she looked around.

"We don't need to become cave people. And we won't need to stay in caves all the time. All we need is new clothes," she said, gesturing to her Water Tribe clothing under her red cloak.

Aang nodded.

"Yeah, blending in is better than hiding out." Aang smiled. "If we had Fire Nation disguises we'd be even safer than we would be hiding in a cave."

Eira thought that there were an infinite number of things safer than a cave but otherwise she couldn't agree more. Blue, yellow, and green stood out quite a bit against the red of the Fire Nation.

Toph sat on the floor, legs crossed.

"Plus, they'll have real food. Does anyone want to sit in the dirt and eat cave hoppers?" she asked, punching the wall. Cave hoppers jumped out and Eira squirmed as they leapt out. Momo caught one and ate it with gusto and Eira made a face. That was not helping.

Sokka looked around at everyone and hunched over in resignation.

"Looks like we got outvoted, sport," he said to Momo, who spat out a leg of the hopper. Sokka clapped his hands together. "Let's get some new clothes."

With Appa and Momo staying back at the cave, they all snuck out to the outskirts of the nearest town.

It was a very pretty place with a collection of homes with gardens looking out onto a waterfall and Cliffside. Clotheslines were placed parallel to each other, all full with clothes of white, black, red, and pink, ready to dry in the heat of the summer afternoon.

Katara, Sokka, Toph, Aang, and Eira all crouched behind a jutting stone wall, eyeing the clotheslines.

"I don't know about this," Aang whispered. "These clothes belong to someone."

"I call the silk robe!" Katara said, jumping over the wall and darting towards the clothes, grabbing two outfits.

"But if it's essential to our survival… then I call the suit!" Aang jumped over the wall, Eira, Toph, and Sokka following closely and they all targeted the clothes they though would fit.

Eira thought that they all had a little too much fun and by the end of it, they had all managed to find an outfit that was suitably Fire Nation.

Eira's disguise was kind of like Ty Lee's in style with a dark red triangular top piece with arm guards, a black top that stopped just below her ribs, and baggy dark trousers that cut off below her knees. The main differences were that Eira's outfit was sleeveless. The shoes were curled and pointed which felt a bit weird but at least they fit and a short red cloth wrapped around her waist.

It felt weird as with her midriff exposed like that, she could see the burn scar she'd got from Admiral Zhao. She'd never really treated it as Katara didn't learn she could heal until afterwards and she didn't exactly have access to medical treatment, so it didn't exactly look nice. At least the arm guards covered the one of her forearm. Eira kind of wished the fashion in the Fire Nation covered up more.

Aang wrapped a dark headband around his forehead. That and his hair completely covered his tattoo so he looked weirdly… normal.

"Ta dah! Normal kid," he announced.

"You look great, Aang," Eira said.

"You too, Eira." But Eira noticed him deliberately avoiding looking at the scar.

Toph sat down on a rock, slipping on some shoes.

"Hm… I should probably wear shoes. But then I won't be able to see as well." She contemplated, and then shrugged. "Sorry, shoes." She gripped them tightly and pushed the soles out. The sole flew off a hit Sokka in the face, leaving a nasty red mark.

"Ouch," Eira said, wincing.

"Finally, a stylish shoe for the blind earthbender," Toph announced, proud of herself.

"Um, Eira. Your bracelet," Sokka pointed out.

Eira froze as her hand rested on it. The Air Nomad symbol engraved in the main rock.

"Yeah. Sorry." Eira quickly slipped it off and put it in the pocket of the wrap-around. She's almost forgotten she had it on.

"How do I look?" Katara walked into their view and stood still, waiting for their opinions.

Aang blushed, but then he noticed.

"Uh…your mum's necklace," he pointed out.

"Oh." Katara's hand went up to her necklace. The blue pendant clashed against the red out her outfit. "I guess it's pretty obviously Water Tribe, isn't it?" Katara took it off from around her neck and held it in her hand, not wanting to let go of it.

"If it's any consolation, you still look lovely," Eira said sympathetically. She did look great. She'd put her hair down and it really suited her. "But I think we should go into town. We could buy some more things there and maybe then my conscience would stop yelling at me," Eira joked.

Luckily, the town was a market town. Stalls and shops were open everywhere and had practically everything. Katara and Eira helped pick out accessories for Toph and themselves while Sokka and Aang looked around by themselves.

They paid for everything with the Fire Nation money that was on the ship (for some reason, they doubted the Fire Nation would accept Water Tribe money).

Katara picked out a golden crown-like headdress for Toph, as well as a necklace for herself. It looked somewhat like a Fire Nation version of her mother's necklace and Eira could tell Katara felt a lot more comfortable with it on considering she couldn't wear the other one. Eira and Sokka both chose simple hair ties that would allow them to wear top-knots. While Sokka went for a full top-knot, Eira only had half of her hair up. Enough to keep the hair around her head from getting into her face while keeping the rest down.

Aang didn't really need anything to complete his outfit. All he did was try and hide Momo down his shirt.

"Well, that was successful," Sokka said, satisfied that they all looked like Fire Nation. "Now, let's get something to eat."

Aang looked around, a big smile on his face. "I used to visit my friend Kuzon here a hundred years ago. So, everyone follow my lead and stay cool. Or, as they say in the Fire Nation, stay flamin'." Aang walked out of their cover and strutted down the market street. "Greetings, my good hotman," he said, pointing at a man eating some sort of food on a stick. Eira cringed. Aang forgot really quickly that he was a hundred years older than everyone else.

The man looked understandably confused. It was probably like someone going up to you and rambling off slang from the 1910s.

"Uh, hi… I guess," he said as Sokka, Katara, Eira, and Toph walked past him, following Aang.

Aang whirled around to look at the stall Sokka was looking at. It was a meat display. All sorts of steaks and slabs of meat were hung around and Aang visibly recoiled.

"Oh, we're going to a meat place?"

"Come on, Aang, everyone here eats meat," Sokka insisted. "Even the meat." He pointed to a large cow… hippo? Eira was still struggling to identify all of the weird mix-and-match animals. It was eating a large piece of meat swarming with flies.

"That… can't be hygienic," Eira said, slightly disgusted.

"Its fine," Sokka said, waving off her concerns.

Aang held his stomach, as if he was feeling nauseous. "You guys go ahead. I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage," he said, pointing behind him.

Eira looked at the selection and her mind whirred in different directions.

"But, um, Aang?" Eira said, conflicted.

"Yes, Eira?"

Eira fidgeted, playing with some of her hair. "I know I'm… like you," she started, avoiding the word airbender. "But, I'm not a nomad and they're not exactly vegetarian around here. Is it… Is it alright if I eat meat and stuff?"

Eira winced at his reaction. Aang looked just as conflicted as her but, as Eira dreaded, he looked disappointed. He nodded, trying to shrug it off, but then he left, just with a little wave goodbye to Katara.

"Don't worry, Fairy Feet," Toph said, hitting her on the arm. "It'll be fine."

"I guess." To be fair, Eira had never really set out on being vegetarian. She just kind of accepted it along with her airbending and being around Aang. It wasn't like she was a nomad or anything. It would be fine, her eating meat… for now, at least.

Sokka bought everyone food and they walked back to the cave, expecting Aang to join them later.

Eira sat outside as everyone ate inside the cave. She knew it was stupid but to be honest, she felt like she could afford to be at least a bit scared after everything that had happened for her: Being slowly buried alive by a crazy man to bait Aang into going into the Avatar state.

Lost in a changing labyrinth filled with singing hippies and wolf-bats.

Being almost trapped in an underground library in the desert with an insane spirt.

Being taken into an underground labyrinth where she was brainwashed and Jet died.

Being trapped underground and being attacked by Azula and the Dai Li.

No one could say she didn't have a reason.

"Do you think Aang got lost?" Katara asked, concerned.

"Oh, he'll be late, I think," Eira said, remembering something. For some reason, the start of season 2 and the start of season 3 were the parts of the show that Eira least remembered.

"Is this something you saw again?" Katara asked, getting more worried. She stood up and looked outside where Eira was. "Is Aang in danger?"

Eira laughed, remembering Aang's situation. She quickly put a hand over her mouth to stop herself.

"Sorry, but I- no. Aang isn't in danger," Eira explained. "The outfit he chose was a school uniform. If I remember correctly, the local soldiers thought he was skiving and took him to the nearest school. If it's anything like schools where I'm from, he should be back in the afternoon. Not too much longer."

"That sounds stupid," Toph commented bluntly.

Sokka groaned and put a hand over his eyes.

"Aang…" he complained. "We have to get him. We can't stay in one place too long."

"You can't exactly just take him out. They'll notice and we'll create too much attention," Eira said.

Sokka paced around, annoyed.

"Fine. We'll wait for him to finish 'school' and then we'll be leaving the next day. We can't afford to waste any time."

Unfortunately, it took longer than Eira expected for Aang to arrive. It was leaning towards the evening before Eira saw Aang strolling down the path towards the cave,

"Hey, Aang!" Eira called, waving over to him. Aang sped down towards them but before he could say anything, Katara and Sokka confronted him.

"Aang, where have you been?" Katara asked. "We've been worried sick."

"I got invite to play with some kids after school," Aang explained casually, undoing his headband.

"Eira was right? You were in a _school_ all day?" Sokka said incredulously.

"Yep, I enrolled in a Fire Nation school," Aang said. "And I'm going back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" Sokka exclaimed. Sokka dramatically fell backwards with an exasperated expression on his face. He sat down on a rock and glared at Aang.

"Yeah. I'm learning so much about the Fire Nation, and I'm meeting a lot of new people. It's nice so I'm going again tomorrow."

"Aang," Sokka said in a strained voice. "I'm trying to be mature and not immediately shut you down, but that sounds…. Really terrible."

"Yeah," Toph agreed as she leant against the cave wall. "We got our outfits. What do you want to go to school for?"

"Every minute I'm in that classroom, I'm learning things I never knew about the Fire Nation," Aang said, a light shining in his eyes. "I already have a picture of Fire Lord Ozai," he added, whipping out a crudely made picture of the Fire Lord of noodles. "Here's one I made."

Sokka leaned in an examined the picture.

"Impressive, I admit it, but I still think it's too dangerous," he concluded.

Aang looked disappointed and dropped his gaze, purposely look sad. "I guess we'll never find out about the secret river then. It goes right to the Fire Lord's palace. We were supposed to learn about it in class tomorrow."

Sokka thought about it hard. "Hmm, I am a fan of secret rivers…"

"Aang, I know you want to go to school, but are you sure?" Eira asked. "For some reason, I doubt a school like that is going to have any information like a secret river to the Fire Lord's palace."

"But it's true. The geography teacher was talking about how it was a defence against invasions and a way for the royal family to escape if they needed to," Aang protested.

Eira stared at Aang, but his large pleading grey eyes were a difficult thing to defend against.

"Fine, let's stay a few more days," she conceded.

"Flamey-o, hotman!" Aang shouted gleefully, before running off, back towards the town.

"I really hope that isn't as outdated as I think it is," Eira said, shaking her head in disbelief.

o.O.o

"Bye, Aang," Eira said, waving him off as she jogged up the path towards the town. "Have a good day at… school." Eira's voice trailed off as the strangeness of the sentence caught her.

"Gah, this is weird," Eira said aloud.

"What is?" Toph asked. Her mouth was stuffed with food.

"I sounded just like my mum," Eira explained. "When I went to school every day she would say the same thing to me."

"You had to go to school every day?"

"Well, five days a week," Eira clarified. "Where I'm from everyone goes to school for about… 13 years. Sometimes more or less."

It felt so weird that she had gotten used to being in another world so quickly. Memories of going to school every day felt so distant.

"I've never been," Toph said.

"I thought since your parents were upper class or whatever, they'd want their daughter to be educated," Eira said, surprised.

Toph waved a hand in front of her blank stare. "They thought I was too blind or fragile. It wasn't like they were going to let me leave ever."

"Oh yeah, right." Eira leant back against a rock. "At least you've proved them wrong on the fragile front."

"So, what are we going to do today?" Katara asked, stepping outside and doing her hair as she did.

"Well, since Aang decided to go to _school_ ," Sokka started, making air quotes around 'school'. "We have another day to fill. I say we use it to do some recon on the Fire Nation, try and figure out what their weaknesses are."

"We've got nothing better to do," Toph said, shrugging.

They all went into town. Most of the stalls were gone and Eira saw a lot less people around.

"They must have market days," she commented.

"That would explain why so few people are around compared to yesterday," Katara said, looking around.

Eira stared at different things around her curiously. It was interesting being in the Fire Nation. Everything felt more… modern in a weird way compared to the Earth Kingdom. She could see that the buildings were better made, the people looked healthier, and more machinery (even if it was still basic) could be seen in the shops and houses. They also used a lot more meal and steel.

They spent quite a lot of time in the town. Sokka was fixated on not-so-subtly asking questions about the war and the Fire Nation while Katara and Eira were interested in the local culture. Toph wasn't particularly interested in much there, there wasn't a lot for someone who couldn't see, so she just walked around with the other two girls.

"I wonder how Aang is doing." Katara commented as they all sat down in the shade.

"He'd better be gathering info on that secret river," Sokka grumbled, sitting down.

"I'm guessing your information gathering didn't go well," Eira said, smiling slightly.

"No one here has anything useful. The most I got was that the Fire Lord's palace is very picky and uptight about what they eat." Sokka frowned. "And I think that one guy was just bitter."

"Well, we had a lovely time," Katara said smugly. She opened her mouth to say something else but she stopped, eyes widening in surprised. "Aang?"

Eira quickly looked in the direction Katara was looking in and, sure enough, Aang was running towards them with a nervous expression on his face.

"Guys! Guys! I need you to pretend to be my parents!" he exclaimed.

"What?!"

"I accidently got in a fight, kinda, and the headmaster said I needed to bring my parents to the school," he explained. He looked expectantly at Eira and Sokka.

Eira laughed. "You can't be serious, Aang. We're 15. There's no way we'll pass for your parents."

He pouted, his large grey eyes shining pleadingly.

"Please. You have to try."

Sokka thought and got a scary look on his face as he had an idea.

"Oh no…" Eira groaned, holding her head in her hands. They were actually going to do through with this.

Her willpower crumbled under Aang's pleading look and, one fake beard, pillow, and some makeup later, Aang, Eira, and Sokka were sitting on uncomfortably hard chairs in the headmaster's office in the school.

It was dark and surprisingly rich-looking. Red, black and gold appeared to be the only colours available to him as they were the only colours Eira saw. It wasn't very friendly-looking and the excess of Fire Nation banners didn't help.

"Thank you for coming, Mr and Mrs…" The headmaster paused, waiting for them to fill in the names.

"Fire," Sokka said quickly in a deep voice. Sokka had glued a massive amount of hair onto his face to create a rather-impressive beard and thick eyebrows. He pointed to Eira. "And this is my wife, Sapphire."

"Sapphire Fire. It's lovely to meet you," Eira said, also trying to deepen her voice slightly to sound older. She made a mental note to berate Sokka for the name. Sapphire Fire. Really?

"Mr and Mrs… Fire," the headmaster repeated hesitantly. "Your son has been enrolled her for two days, and he's already causing problems. He's argued with his history teacher, disrupted his music lesson, and roughed up my star pupil."

Eira put a hand to her mouth in fake-surprise.

"My goodness!" she gasped. "That doesn't sound like our Kuzon."

"That's what any mother would say, Ma'am," the headteacher said. "Nonetheless, you're being forewarned. If Kuzon acts up one more time, I'll have him sent to reform school." He stood up behind his desk intimidatingly. "And by which, I mean the coal mines. Are we clear?"  
They sent children to coal mines?! That was awful. Eira bit down a remark about the rights violations of sending a child to work in mines and she put on a concerned expression.

"Don't you worry, Mr Headmaster, I'll straighten this boy out somethin' fierce!" Sokka reassured the headmaster in a hammy voice. He turned to Aang with an exaggerated angry expression. "Young man, as soon as we get home, you're gonna get the punishment of a lifetime!" Aang looked alarmed but Eira just shot Sokka a look. He was going a bit overboard.

"That's what I like to hear," the headmaster said, nodding and sitting down in his chair again.

"Have a good day," Eira said politely, putting a hand on Aang's shoulder and directing him out of the room. Sokka followed and the three of them walked out of the school ground as quickly as they could. With Eira disguised to look pregnant, it was hard to walk quickly but she couldn't wait to stop with the disguise.

"We are not doing that again," she said sternly. She shook her head in disbelief. "I still can't believe he bought it. People here are so… unobservant."

"I don't know," Sokka said, stroking his fake beard. "I think I was pretty convincing." Eira rolled her eyes as they finally reached the cave again.

"That settles it! No more school for you, young man!" Sokka yelled, still in character.

"Sokka, drop the act," Eira said tiredly.

Aang looked down at his feet. "But I'm not ready to leave yet. I'm having fun for once, just being a normal kid," he protested. "You don't know what it's like, Sokka. You get to be normal all the time."

Toph laughed loudly from the corner of the cave. Sokka glared at her.

"Listen, those kids at the school are the future of the Fire Nation. If we want to change this place for the better, we need to show them a little taste of freedom," Aang said.

"What could you do for a country of depraved little fire monsters?" Sokka asked.

"I'm going to throw them," Aang got up and did a little dance, "a secret dance party!"

Sokka, Eira, Toph, and Katara just stared at him.

"Go to your room!" Sokka said, returning to his Wang Fire voice.

"Aang, I'm sorry, but a dance party? How is that going to help them?" Eira asked. "Dancing only makes me uncomfortable and self-conscious."

"It is a little ridiculous, Aang," Katara agreed.

"But, at least with the air nomads, dancing was an expression of our freedom. It was a way to celebrate how we felt and the fact that we could. I think it's just what those kids need," Aang said. His eyes twinkled with excitement and at that moment, everyone else just accepted that it was impossible to say no to Aang when he looked like that.

After a quick pop into the town to gather party supplies, they went around to decorate the cave. Well, Toph, Katara, Sokka, and Aang decorated the cave. Eira, seeing as she didn't really want to go inside, they gave her the job of distributing flyers. Aang quickly drew up a map of where his friends lived and in no time at all, Eira was zipping around and leaving the flyers next to the school kids. Surprisingly, a lot were still at the school despite the fact it was evening. They appeared to be working silently. Eira left a few of the flyers around the grounds where she thought the kids would find them before returning.

"Wow," she said as she looked inside. They'd set up candles in the cave so it was lit up with a warm orange glow as well as red banners hanging around. The colours all worked well together and Toph had even earthbent a stage for the musical kids the play on. "You guys have done a good job."

"I know," Aang said, putting his headband back on. "They'll love it."

"I don't know. This still feels… silly," Sokka admitted as he readjusted a candle.

"Don't think of it as a dance party, but as a cultural event celebrating the art of fancy footwork!" Aang beamed as he danced energetically.

Eira's feelings towards dancing remained the same, but she admired how enthusiastically Aang danced. He really enjoyed it and Eira didn't want to ruin it.

"They're coming!" Toph announced. "Everyone stop bending."

Aang quickly herded Appa to the back tunnel Toph had made.

"Sorry buddy, you should probably wait out back." Appa grumbled in protest. "I know. You've got fancier feet than anybody. And six of 'em!"

Eira sat by the entrance and, like Toph said; a large group of schoolkids still in uniform were marching down.

They awkwardly entered and despite the fact that the cave was definitely large enough to give them room to spread out, they all stood in one tight crowd. The musicians filed onto the stage and started playing a jaunty yet controlled song.

Aang didn't seem to mind this, and he jumped up onto the stage, smiling wide at everyone.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he greeted in a loud voice. "The Flamey-O's!" he pointed to the band. He nodded happily with the music. "Yeah, this ought to get everybody moving." He looked back to the crowd expectantly but they were still bunched together, no moving.

A young girl with straight brown hair looked around unsurely.

"Now what do we do?" she asked.

Aang was taken aback. "This is when you start dancing," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I don't think my parents would want me dancing in a cave," a nervous student said meekly.

The boy next to him looked around anxiously. "Yeah! What if someone finds out?"

"Oh boy," Aang said. He obviously hadn't expected this. "Listen guys, dancing isn't something you think about. It's a form of self-expression that no one can ever take away from you."

The brown-haired girl still looked unsure.

"Maybe it's different in the colonies, Kuzon, but no one does that here," she said sadly.

"Sure you do," Aang said, jumping down from the stage as the music continued to be played. "The Fire Nation has been for generations. I just so happen to know several classic Fire Nation dances. A hundred years ago, this was known as the 'Phoenix Flight'."

Everyone 'oohed' and 'ahhed' as Aang performed the dance. He ran around, low to the ground and the schoolkids spread out to give him room.

"And, this was the 'Camelephant Strut'," he said. Aang jumped from side to side and did a roll near a group of girls. The giggled and Aang smiled as he finished it off with a backflip, landing on one foot with excellent balance.

The students were staring at Aang with utmost admiration and awe. It was quite sad that they'd never seen anything like it before. As much as Eira didn't enjoy dances, she at least had seen them before.

"Who knew Twinkle Toes could dance?" Toph said to Katara, smirking.

Aang then pulled the brown-haired girl by her hand into the middle of the circle.

"And this is how they do it in the ballrooms of Ba Sing Se," Aang said, aping his feet from side to side. The girl tried it out, mimicking his movements and a wide smiled grew on her face.

The other kids seemed to catch her enthusiasm and they all tried copying the dance too. Aang looked proud at his work.

"Now, everybody, freestyle!" he shouted and they seemed to go into a flurry of odd movements that almost made Eira laugh and cry at the same time due to second-hand embarrassment but even she couldn't help but smile at it.

Aang had pulled Katara onto the dance floor and they moved in perfect sync with each other, incorporating the dance moves and their bending into a beautiful dance. Eira loved seeing the smiles on their faces as they danced. Seeing Aang and Katara this happy when only a few days ago they both looked so sad really filled Eira with hope.

Eira tapped her foot along with the music (the most dancing she would ever do) and just enjoyed the warm atmosphere. It was one of the moments when the heat of the Fire Nation felt less oppressive and more pleasant.

Eira looked around at the night sky and setting, smiling. She looked to the side and it vanished. Crud! The headmaster, a tall male student, and several soldiers were marching down the hill towards the cave.

"Aang!" she hissed anxiously. "Aang!" He didn't hear her. He and Katara were still too busy dancing.

"What is it, Fairy Feet?" Toph asked, walking casually over to her.

"They've found out and-"

Toph, obviously seeing them approach, quickly pulled Eira inside and into the crowd as the headmaster and soldiers reached the entrance.

"This is incredible!" A random student exclaimed, waving his arms in the air. "It's like my inhibitions just disappear!" Everyone noticed their unwelcome visitors at the same time and it was almost impressive how quickly the killed the mood. "They're back now," he whimpered quietly, almost trying to hide himself inside his robes.

"He's the one we want!" The headmaster instructed, jabbing a finger towards Aang. "The boy with the headband!"

"Oh oh!" Aang dived into the crowd and the soldiers ran after him into the cave.

Eira's anxiety skyrocketed with the soldiers, as well as being inside the cave so she darted towards the back with Toph.

"Gotcha!" One soldier exclaimed, but a different boy simply turned to face him.

"Looking for me?"

"He's not the one. He's here somewhere. Don't let him leave the cave!" The headmaster yelled.

Sokka, Katara, Eira, and Toph all made their way towards the back, trying to lie low. The cave was filling with headband-wearing kids and the soldiers were getting caught up as the contradicting voices bombarded them.

"Aang, finally," Sokka sighed in relief as Aang snuck out of the crowd. "Let's go."

"Yes," Eira agreed, trying to control her breathing. "Let's."

Aang looked back and winked at the brown-haired girl, thanking her, and after making sure no one else was looking, he earthbent a hole all the way outside.

They all rushed out and in no time at all, they were flying away under the cover of night on Appa.

Eira took a deep breath, the cold night air calming her down.

"As fun as that was, can we try not to leave every place we go with soldiers chasing after us," she said jokingly.

"I thought you would be used to it," Toph commented.

Eira sat up straight, and she stared at Sokka incredulously. The beard was still stuck to his face. How didn't she notice that during the party?

"Sokka… why are you still wearing that beard?"

He stroked it, trying to look like a wise sage. "It is permanently glued to my skin."

By now, everyone had just accepted some of Sokka's antics so Toph just turned to talk to Aang.

"Way to go, dancy pants. I think you really did help those kids, you taught them to be free."

Aang shrugged unsurely. "I don't know. It was just a dance party, that's all."

"Well, that was some dance party, Aang," Katara said, kissing his cheek. Aang blushed and smiled.

"Flamey-o, sir. Flamey-o," Sokka complimented, clapping lightly.

"We still need to check up on that," Eira said, laughing. As long as it wasn't a swear or something. "Congrats, Aang. If you could make a dance party _I_ liked, that hats off to you."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **Please tell me what you thought about it and review :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay, next chapter out already. I'm actually kind of happy with this one. I like Katara and even though I didn't particularly love this episode, I do like writing her.**

 **Thanks again to ObsessedwReading and lostgamer64 for reviewing. I don't get your reference, but thanks anyway. You're both awesome. I love reading what all of you think about this story and my writing so please review :D**

* * *

Chapter 3- Spirit of the Future

* * *

"That's… not very clean," Eira commented blankly, leaning over the side of Appa's saddle to look at the water he was slogging through. They'd been flying through the night, but everyone quickly caught on to the fact that, especially in the hot cloudless Fire Nation summer, flying during the day wasn't going to happen.

Sokka had been annoyed as he was making a master schedule to make sure they were on time and prepared for the invasion plan and flying beat swimming for speed. However, he acknowledged that their secrecy was the key for the invasion working in the first place.

Appa had settled on swimming his way downstream through a forested area and for the first part, the water had looked nice and clear. Along the way, the water had darkened into a horrible murky brown, which disgusted Eira because Aang and Momo were playing around in it and Sokka was even trying to fish!

Aang chased Momo as he dove and flew around the small river, chittering happily as he did. Aang laughed and lost balance, falling down and creating a large splash. Aang stopped laughing and looked with dismay at his muddy clothes.

"Guys, I think this water is polluted," he said plainly. He jumped up onto the saddle and shook all of the mud of him. The mud splattered everywhere and everyone cried out in disgust.

Aang wiped at his face and stuck out his tongue. "Blech! Pah!" He spat out the polluted water and threw off all of the mud with a burst of airbending.

Good news, it worked. Bad news, it made everyone look like they'd come out of the wrong end of a wind tunnel.

"Bleh," Eira said under her breath as she tried to re-do her top-knot and flatten her hair. Everything had been knocked to the side and with the water being dried it looked like she had dumped a bottle of hairspray on her head.

"Well that explains why I can't catch a fish around here, because usually my fishing skills are off the hook." Sokka raised his fishing rod and grinned expectantly. "Get it? Like a fishing hook?"

"Too bad your skills aren't _on_ the hook," Toph countered. Everyone laughed and Sokka made a disgruntled face.

Eira looked through her bag and frowned as she found that they had no food. She pulled out the scroll Sokka had made and flicked it open.

"We need to stop off at the nearest town or village or something for food. We're out." Eira looked up from the timetable. "If it fits on your "master schedule". "

Sokka looked up in thought. "Hmmm… It's doable. But that means only two potty breaks today."

Eira made a face. "You know, things like this are only meant to be approximations, right?" she said, indicating to the scroll.

"Hey!" Sokka protested, snatching it back. "Better safe than sorry," he said, rolling it up.

"Hey," Aang said, grabbing their attention as he sat on Appa's head, peering ahead. "Maybe we can get food there!" He pointed at a collection of houses connected by wooden planks raised above the water.

It looked pretty miserable, especially with the horrible murky water and collecting grey clouds above it. Everything looked washed out and beige. And then Eira realised it was the start of the next episode. Eira always felt odd in between 'episodes'. She never knew what to expect or how long she would have to wait until she finally recognised what she was doing.

It was a shame that it was the… spirit woman or something… The titles were slipping her memory, like many other things. Either way, she never really liked this episode but now, with her newfound distaste for spirits, just the thought was irritating.

"Yeah," Sokka said. "Sounds good."

Aang directed Appa through the forested area and earthbent a collection of grass and dirt over him to disguise him. It looked like pretty good camouflage… if only Appa's horns weren't sticking out.

Aang smiled at his work, obviously satisfied.

"Now you look just like a little hill with horns!" he said cheerfully. Appa let out a low groan as Momo chittered from the patch of grass where he was hiding. "Bye, buddy!" Aang waved the air bison goodbye and Eira was going to comment on the disguise, but in the end it didn't matter. No one found him in the show, according to her fuzzy memory anyway.

The group walked back towards the river and as they got closer, Toph was being to look confused.

"I don't feel anything. Where is the village?" she asked.

"It's in the middle of the river," Eira answered, not bothering to point or indicate seeing as Toph couldn't see. "But there are a bunch of wooden paths connecting everything so you should be able to see there, I think."

"Sure is!" Eira flinched and looked around, startled. An old man was standing next to a little boat by the riverbank. He looked a bit… kooky. His white hair stuck out at different angles and he had a constant crazed look on his face. Eira needed to be more observant sometimes.

"My name's Dock," he continued. "Mind if I ask who you are?"

"We're from the Earth Kingdom colonies," Eira said. It was the easiest explanation for all they didn't know about the Fire Nation.

"Wow! Colonials. Hop on, I'll give you a ride to the town," he said, gesturing to his boat.

They all climbed into his boat shakily. It wobbled as it got used to their weight but luckily it didn't tip. Eira didn't even want to touch that water.

Dock grabbed his paddle and the boat began to move steadily towards the village.

"Why do you guys live on the river?" Katara asked, looking around curiously.

Dock gestured with his paddle and gestured around. "Because we're a fishing town," he explained, before pointing his paddle at the tall, dark steel factory at the base of the river. "At least that's how it was before the factory moved in." A massive red Fire Nation insignia was emblazoned on the front. Water spewed out the pipes below it, and Eira couldn't help but notice that the water there looked even worse, if it was possible. "Army makes their metal there. Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up the river. Now our little village is struggling to survive."

Katara and Aang looked sadly at each other. The boat stopped slowly as it bumped into the dock to the village. They all climbed out of the boat and as Eira's shoes made contact with the creaking wooden planks she couldn't help but think that they would've been better off getting food somewhere else.

Some of the people were just aimlessly wandering around, while others sat outside houses, looking blankly into the distance. Everyone looked so distraught, hopeless, and hungry.

"Thanks for the ride," Aang said to Dock, waving.

"Look at this place," Katara said, her worried eyes scanning around the village. "It's so sad. We _have_ to do something to help." She clenched her hands into fists and she looked determinedly to the rest of the group.

"Look, Katara," Eira started, lowering her voice and trying not to sound too harsh. "The best thing we can do here is to defeat the Fire Lord and end the war. We can't help them with our minimal supplies."

"But these people are starving!" Katara exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. "How can you be so cold and heartless?"

"Come on, Katara," Sokka said. "She's just being realistic. We can't go around helping every rinky-dink town we wander into. Like Eira said, we'll help them all when we take out the- OWW!"

Eira stepped on his foot before whispering. "There was a reason I was talking _quietly_."

"Either way, we need to be reasonable." He looked at Katara, expression softening. "You know the mission has to come first."

Katara paused. "I guess so," she said reluctantly, looking annoyed.

"Let's just get what we need and go," Aang said, smiling. Katara smiled back.

They walked across the creaky boards, looking around.

"Oh, there's a stall," Aang said, pointing. It was a small wooden market stall with Dock manning it. Except he was wearing a different hat.

"Hey, Dock," Sokka greeted. "You work here, too?"

He gave him a confused expression, tipping his head. "I'm not Dock. I'm Xu, Dock's brother."

"But we just saw you. You're even wearing the same clothes," Aang insisted, gesturing to the man's clothes. Same red vest. "The only difference is your hat.

Xu looked up at his hat, before giving them a smile of crooked teeth. "Dock works on the docks. That's why we call him "Dock", and I working in the shop, that's why they call me, "Xu"!"

They stared at him.

"I don't get it," Aang said.

Eira didn't get it either. The closest she could think of was that 'Xu' was 'shop' in Japanese, or Chinese, but she was pretty sure it wasn't.

"Me neither," Xu said.

 _Well, that's great,_ Eira thought sarcastically.

Xu reached behind the stall and heaved a crate of rancid, grey, slimy seafood onto the counter. The smell hit Eira like a ton of bricks and she felt like she was going to be sick. It didn't matter that she wasn't a vegetarian while they were in the Fire Nation, she wasn't eating anything in that crate.

"What can I getcha?" Xu asked, not taking notice of all their disgusted faces. Even Toph looked disgusted and she couldn't even see what it looked like, only what it smelt like. "Hey, I'll give you a special deal. If you buy three fish, I'll give you a clam for free."

Sokka inspected the clam. He poked it and mucus oozed out of it. Eira recoiled and put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from throwing up. Aang and Katara stepped back away from it.

Sokka picked up the three fish carefully, trying not to get them near the clam. "We'll just take the fish. Mind telling your brother we need a ride back to shore?"

Xu ducked behind his stall and reappeared with Dock's hat back on.

"Hey, colonials! My brother says you need a lift!" He leaped over the counter and walked towards the dock where his boat is.

"I'm pretty sure eating those fish hasn't been good to him," Eira said in a deadpan tone. They followed him to the boat, but Eira noticed Katara hung back. A small, weak-looking boy looked up at her as Katara handed him a fish. He turned and went over to a sickly-looking women. Probably his mother.

Eira wished that she didn't know what Katara was going to do.

o.O.o

Aang lifted the water into the cool night air with his waterbending and with a short jab, Toph cleared the pollutants out of it. Her earthbending forcing the impurities out. Aang passed the clean water over to Katara who poured it into a small pot over the fire.

Sokka sat over his scroll and Eira was doing her best to make what little food they had edible.

"Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule. It's gonna take some serious finagling to get up back on track," Sokka announced.

"Finagle away, oh schedule master," Toph said sarcastically as she sat down, leaning back against a rock.

Sokka ignored her jibe. "Well, for starters, it looks like we'll need to wake up forty three minutes earlier every day."

"Sokka, that's ridiculous. We don't even have a watch, or a clock, or anything," Eira said exasperatedly.

"A what?" Sokka asked, confused.

"Oh, right," Eira said quietly. "We don't have anything to measure time that specifically," she clarified. Some things still caught her. "Plus, all that matters is the days. We may have lost a day, but we can easily make that up by trying to avoid more days like this."

"And I'm _not_ waking up early," Toph said adamantly.

"Or we could just cut out all of our eating breaks," Sokka suggested, irritated.

"What?"

"No way!"

"Forget it."

Aang, Katara, and Toph glared at Sokka. Eira was personally getting an urge to rip the scroll into little pieces.

"Now you're just being ridiculous. We need to eat," Eira said.

Sokka made a face. "I got it, how's this? From now on, we'll take food breaks and potty breaks at the same time."

Aang spat out his drink and Katara and Eira made disgusted faces.

"Hey, it might be gross, but it's efficient. Either way, we have to leave first time tomorrow morning."

Katara's face fell at his words. She looked away and Eira's eyebrows knitted together in concern.

"Hey, Katara? Are you-"

"I think it's all ready," she announced quickly.

Throughout tea, she refused to allow Eira to talk to her and even after, she fell asleep almost straight away. Or at least, she pretended to.

o.O.o

"What the matter, Katara?" Aang asked, running over to her. Katara was stroking Appa's muzzle as he lay on his side, groaning.

"I think Appa's sick," she said, sounding upset.

"What?!" Sokka yelled, holding his hands to his head. "Appa's sick? That's awful!"

"Wow, Sokka. I didn't realise you cared so much," Toph noted in her typical sarcastic voice.

"Of course I care," he said, looking indignant. "I might as well just throw out schedule away now." He pulled out the scroll but stopped as he noticed everyone glaring at him.

"Well done, Sokka," Eira said sarcastically.

Toph walked over to Appa. "He must've gotten sick from being in the polluted water."

"He doesn't look sick." Aang knelt to be eye level with Appa. He patted his head. "You okay, buddy?" Appa groaned in response, opening his mouth to reveal his bright purple tongue. "His tongue is purple! That can't be good. Katara, can you heal him?"

Katara tapped her fingers on her mouth and hummed in thought.

"It looks like he needs some medicine. Maybe we can find the right herbs in town," she suggested.

Eira didn't comment. She didn't want to do anything in front of the others, but she needed to talk to Katara.

"Um, alright," Eira said. "But Katara, I need to talk to you about… our supplies."

"Okay." Katara looked suspicious but she followed Eira downstream anyway.  
"You guys go into town," Eira called back to the others. "We'll catch up with you."

"What is it, Eira," Katara asked, her voice sounding higher than usual. Eira took a deep breath, brushing back her hair.

"I know Appa isn't sick."

"Wait, Eira, I only did it because-" Katara began, her blue eyes wide.

"I know," Eira said, cutting her off. "And I'm not going to tell the others. I just… I know that if I force you to leave without resolving your issues with this place you won't let it go. The thing is Katara, you can't just help people like this. It's only short-term and could even hurt them in the future."

"… Did you see this?" Katara asked quietly.

"What?"

"Did you see this before you came here? Like how you saw about Ba Sing Se?"

"Yes. Yes, I did," Eira said.

"How much _did_ you see, then?" Katara asked.

"I know… up until the end of the war. There are a lot of blank spaces, but I remember a lot," Eira explained cautiously. "I won't say anything to the others. I want you to make your own decision. I think we can manage to stay for at most two more days, though."

Katara nodded, though she looked a little confused and even mystified. Eira smirked. It must be strange being told the future with such confidence, not that Eira had a lot of confidence about certain parts of her _vision_.

Katara and Eira took the ferry across to the river and quickly caught up with the others. They were looking around, almost confused at how different the atmosphere was. People were running around, full of energy. A group of little boys were playing together with a bouncy ball. One man was even pole vaulting across from house to house.

It felt so lively, bustling, and colourful. The beige and grey looking a lot nicer under a blue sky, even if the water was still hideous.

"Is it me, or does this place seem different?" Toph asked.

"Yeah, are the people… happier?" Aang said, looking around. "Oh, hey Katara!" Aang smiled at Katara and Eira who were stood behind him, just arrive. Katara smiled as she looked around, obviously happy with her work.

"Hey, Aang."

"Xu, what's going on with everyone today?" Sokka asked, going up to Xu/Dock's market stall. He was stirring on sort of soup with a ladle, occasionally taking a sip of it himself.

"Ah, something amazing happened last night. Food was delivered to our village by a mysterious and wonderful person… the Painted Lady," he explained in a voice full of awe.

"The Painted who now?" Katara asked quickly.

"The Painted Lady." Xu ducked beneath his counter and pulled out a range of mini statuettes. They were of a woman with red lines on her face and arms, flowing robes and a large, flat hat. She looked quite beautiful, even as a figurine, but Eira couldn't bring herself to like it. Spirits were annoying things.

"She's part of our town's lore," Xu continued. "They say she's a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need. I always thought she was just a legend, until now."

"See," Sokka said, turning smugly to face Katara. "We don't need to help these people. They already have someone to help them. All we need is medicine for our sick friend." Sokka looked at Xu expectantly but Xu waved dismissively.

"Medicine? Sorry, but all the medicine goes to the factory. That's why there's so many sick people in our village," he explained glumly.

"Looks like we're staying another night," Katara said.

Sokka sighed loudly. "I guess you're right. Got any more food to sell?"

Xu pulled out two slimy grey fish, one in each of his hands.

"Would you like the one-headed fish, or he two-headed fish?" he offered, turning on of the side to the side so you could see the horrible, disgusting second head.

"Choose the one-headed fish or I'll throw you in the river," Eira said, trying not to smell it.

"But, it's more for your money," Sokka said, snatching up the fish in his hand and leaving a few coins.

Eira recoiled in disgusted and edged away but Sokka began running after her the fish in hand.

"I'm not joking, Sokka!" He laughed, diving at her, trying to force her to look at the disgusting fish but she turned sharply on the spot so he missed and fell in with a great splash.

"See," Eira said, trying not to laugh as the rest of the Gaang did.

o.O.o

"Psst… Eira." Eira's eyes fluttered open and she saw a figure looming over her, a shadow against the night sky.

"Wha-"

"Shh, it's me," the figure whispered, raising their hat to reveal it was Katara. Her face was painted with the red stripes of the Painted Lady.

Eira looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Really?" she whispered back, getting up and making sure she made no other sound.

"Come on," Katara said, quietly pulling her away from the campsite. "I need your help."

"What do you need _my_ help for? I said I wouldn't say anything to the others, not be an accomplice."

"I can go and heal most of them with my waterbending, but afterwards, we can sneak into the factory to get the medicine. You're better at moving quietly than me. I almost got caught last time." Katara looked pleadingly at Eira.

Eira sighed. "Fine. But _I'm_ not dressing up as a spirit. That can be your thing."

Katara clapped her hands together and smiled.

"Thanks, Eira."

Katara turned to the river and dashed across it, riding on a wave from her waterbending. That as well as the mist she was making on the surface of the water was really good for the effect. It really did make it look like she was floating and gliding through the air.

Eira turned towards the factory. Even at night it had a tall imposing shadow. It didn't look like anyone was working in it, so maybe it wouldn't even be that hard.

Eira jumped up with her airbending into the trees, going from branch to branch up the hill and in no time at all she was there, peering into one of the windows.

It was too dark to make anything out but she doubted they'd keep any medicine or food inside the actual factory itself. Eira knew they didn't know a lot about hygiene considering the time period but that would be pushing it.

Eira walked around, making sure to move lightly and quietly.

"Hey!" A loud male voice boomed through the silence and Eira darted into the nearby foliage. A bulky soldier stormed into view and two other guards ran out, saluting him. "Where is our shipment?! My men have been waiting days for their weapons and supplies and what do we have, ZILCH! You're going to be in a whole load of trouble if you don't pick up the pace!"

"But we had it, captain," one of the guards protested. "We told you, there was an issue in the storeroom-"

 _There is a storeroom?_ Eira thought. That was likely were she was supposed to go.

Eira slowly and quietly made her way around, giving the group a wide berth as she did. Sure enough, by the other side of the factory, there was a smaller square building with a heavy metal door. She sneaked up to it and the lock was broken. Probably from Katara the other night.

Eira tested the door, pushing her palm against it. It creaked quietly. Eira looked around sharply to see if anyone noticed, but everything was the same. Eira pushed it open and scanned the dark room. It was stacked to the brim with boxes, and Eira smiled as she saw a thankfully small crate labelled "medicine". Just what she needed.

Eira picked up the box in both of her hands and strolled out of the storeroom, and a Fire Nation guard was standing far away, but staring directly at her.

"Uh oh," she muttered under her breath, dashing to the side, running over to the ledge. It was very high up, and overlooked the village, river, and forests on either side.

Eira took a deep breath, and ran right off. She gripped the box tightly in her arms as she fell. Eira kicked her legs in a circle and she felt the air sweeping under her, slowing her. She rolled mid-air towards the forest and gasped as she dived into the leaves of a tree.

The leaves and branches stung her face and body but the air sweeping under her cushioned her landing so as her legs reached out for the ground, they fell out from under her and she landed right on her but, otherwise relatively unharmed.

She looked up at where she had jumped and a laugh bubbled out from her lips. She just jumped off practically a cliff. She was insane! And amazing! Her heart ran a hundred beats a minute and her eyes and hair probably looked wild but she couldn't stop smiling. Now she sort of understood bungee-jumpers. It really was a rush!

Eira jogged along the river but she stopped as she saw the mist collecting.

"Hey, Katara," she greeted cheerfully.

Katara's glided out of the mist and she smiled as she saw the box Eira was still carrying.

"You got it. Thanks, Eira."

Eira passed the medicine over into Katara's hands. "No problem."

"Why do you look so… crazed?" Katara asked, almost laughing at Eira's expression.

"Just jumped off that," Eira explained, pointing to the factory's location.

"I'm going to drop this off and then we can just pretend we were sleeping all night," Katara said, motioning to the medicine. She turned to leave but Eira put a hand on her shoulder, her smile wearing off.

"Look, Katara. You _do_ realise that this is only temporary, don't you?" Eira asked, concerned.

"I…" Katara looked away. "This will help them."

"But just for a few days. The factory will still take their food and medicine from them, and they won't do anything if they expect a spirit to do it for them," Eira said sadly.

"I know what I'm going to do then," Katara said, determined. She dashed off across the water without even a second glance.

Eira walked back to the campsite, not making a sound and lay down on her sleeping bag. She didn't know what to do to get Katara to see the answer that was right in front of her. It was hard, knowing what to do, but having to be elusive about it. She just wanted to blurt it all out.

o.O.o

"Hi, Dock. Is Xu around?" Sokka asked, not bothering to question the old man's antics anymore, as Dock polished his little Painted Lady statuette.

"Let me check…" Dock ran around and behind the shop, ducking under the counter to change his hat before popping up, a lopsided grin on his face as Xu. "Back again, are ya?"

Toph pushed Sokka out of the way. "We need more food," she said bluntly, slamming the coins down onto the counter. "Our friend is _still_ sick and we can't leave until he's better."

Xu took out a tray and presented a platter of more of the polluted clams. Sokka slid back and examined the clams, looking frustrated. Eira couldn't blame him. She couldn't wait until they had some proper food again.

"Oh, well that's too bad. Maybe if you guys are lucky, the Painted Lady will visit you in the night, and heal your friend," Xu said. "I would offer you some of the medicine too, but we just ran out."

"Are you kidding me?" Eira complained. It was a small box, sure, but it only lasted a morning?!

"And maybe she'll cook us a midnight snack, and we'll all have a sing-along," Sokka muttered bitterly as he reluctantly took the clams.

"Yeah, maybe!" Xu said, the sarcasm flying over his head. "You know, last night she visited us again. Healed most of our sick folks and gave us medicine for the rest."

"Is that why this place is so festive?" Aang asked, gesturing to the large crowd cheering in the centre of the village as hey raised a newly-painted statue of the Painted Lady.

Eira felt a twinge of annoyance. She didn't want recognition for it, far from it, but she wished the attention wasn't so focused on a spirit.

"Yep, it's all thanks to the Painted Lady," Xu confirmed.

Katara smiled proudly. "Can you believe how much an entire village can be affected by one lady?" Katara's eyes widened in realisation and quickly corrected herself. "I mean, spirit."

"Well, I hope she returns every night. Otherwise this place would go right back to the way it was," Sokka said dismissively.

"Why would you say that?" Katara said, frowning deeply. "Look how much better everybody looks."

"Yeah, now, but they don't know how to do anything for themselves," Sokka explained. "If she really wanted to help, she'd use some of her spirit magic to blow up that factory." Sokka jabbed a thumb at the factory before flailing his arms around and making mocking explosion noises. He smiled and crossed his arms and, in contrast, Katara looked even more frustrated and irritated.

Aang didn't look impressed with Sokka, but it wasn't in the way Katara would've liked. "Spirit magic doesn't work that way, Sokka. It's more like…" Aang waved his arms and body, imitating eerie noises.

Katara stormed off, stamping her foot in outrage.

Sokka smiled, wrapping an arm around Aang's shoulder and they both continued their impressions together and laughing.

Eira laughed coldly. "No, no. Spirit magic is more like this." Eira kicked a stone off the wooden floor as hard as she could and it crashed into the river with a splash. Eira walked off, feeling her face turning red from anger. As much as she was… well, not _fine_ , but managing being in this world she reserved the right to be bitter and angry about the two selfish things that forced her here without any sort of permission or even care.

She'd been through much more than she was ever prepared for. She had been forced to learn how to handle a magical power of all things in the middle of a war, _and_ suddenly come face to face with people and situations that she had watched on television as cartoons. It was nuts and Eira was honestly surprised that she hadn't had some sort of complete mental breakdown.

The rest of the day was as boring as the rest and Eira spent it in not one of the best moods. Aang and Sokka apologised but it didn't help the fact that she was still feeling awful.

"So, what are you going to be doing tonight?" Eira whispered to Katara as she prepared her disguise.

"I'm going to-" Katara flinched and she made shooing motions. "Hide!"

Eira slinked into the shadows of the foliage and Eira quickly found out why as Katara fled over the river water, and Aang was chasing after her.

"I'm the bridge between our two worlds!" he called out. "And my friend needs help!"

"Wait! Aang," Eira said, stepping out of hiding. "Katara, come on. It's over."

"Eira?! Katara?" Aang skidded to a halt as he noticed her. He turned back to the "Painted Lady". Katara took off her hat. "Hi, Aang," she said guiltily.

"What are you two doing?" Aang asked, shocked. "You're the Painted Lady." He pointed at Katara's get-up. "How?"

"She was just trying to help out the village," Eira explained. "I found out, but I didn't want to tell the rest of you. This is important for Katara."

"So you've been sneaking out at night?" Realisation dawned on Aang. "Wait, is Appa even sick?"

Katara looked sheepish. "He might be sick of the purple berries I've been feeding him, but other than that he's fine."

"I can't believe that you lied to everyone, so you could help these people," Aang said.

"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have-" Katara said quickly but Aang stopped her with a wide smile and eyes shining with excitement.

"No, I think it's great! You're like a secret hero!"

"Wait," Eira said. That was not how she expected him to react. "But she delayed the mission and went off on her own. I thought you'd be annoyed."

Aang shook his head. "I think it's really cool."

 _Okay…_ Eira thought, thoroughly confused. She must've misremembered something.

"And if you want to help, there's one more thing I have to do."

Aang looked at her curiously but followed her as she walked up the river.

"Wait," Eira said, suddenly remembering. She jogged after them and grabbed Katara's arm. "You can't destroy the factory!"

"Why not?" Katara asked, pulling her arm away. "Sokka was kidding, but he was right. You even said it yourself; the factory will continue to take their food and medicine as long as it's here."

"But, that's not what's right," Eira insisted weakly. "Katara, the people up there were furious at only a fraction of their stuff being stolen. Imagine how they'll react when they find their factory blown up."

"What else can I do?" Katara asked angrily. "Tell me, Eira. Tell me with what you've seen! What else can I do to help these people?!"

Eira stalled. "I… You do- Gah!" Eira threw up her arms in frustration, relenting. "You destroy the factory and it works out but-"

"That's all I need to hear. Come on, Aang." Katara ran off, not allowing Eira to say another word. Aang looked helplessly at Eira.

"Does it really work out?"

"Yes, but-" And Aang followed Katara.

Eira kicked at the dirt and growled under her breath. She stormed off, her footsteps heavy as she trudged back to the campsite.

Both Sokka and Toph were still asleep and Eira honestly couldn't be bothered to wake either of them up. It wasn't like they could do much now. By now, they'd already be up there.

Eira fell back onto her sleeping bag and stared up at the night sky and she ended up staring all night, knowing that she wouldn't get a wink.

"Where's Aang and Katara?" Sokka jumped up and scanned the immediate area, noticing both of them were gone.

"They went up to destroy the factory," Eira stated, sitting up.

"What!?" Sokka yelled.

"Katara has been feeding Appa some sort of purple berry which has been making his tongue like that. She first took food from the factory and gave it to the villagers," Eira explained. "I found out, but helped her with the healing and medicine, but last night Aang found out and the two of them went up to destroy the factory to help the villagers."

Sokka looked stunned. He stuttered and flailed his arms. "I was joking!"

"Why didn't you tell us?" Toph asked, annoyed.

"If I told you, you'd all leave immediately and Katara wouldn't learn anything," Eira said, knowing they'd think it was a weak reason. "She needs to learn that you can't just solve people's problems for them."

Sokka crossed his arm, frowning. "Well, you were right. We've wasted too much time. As soon as they get back, we are flying out of here on Appa."

Toph looked curiously in Eira's direction. "How did you find out?"

Eira brushed her hand through her hair. "I kind of knew before it happened. It was another thing I saw."

"You knew _this_ too?" Sokka said, the frown fading and being replaced with curiosity. "I thought you only saw important stuff like with Jet and the thing with Azula and the Dai Li."

"Like I said to Katara, my memory has a lot of blank spaces and it's getting fuzzier. I remember the important events the best but, to be honest, I know from when you first met Aang to around the end of the war," Eira said.

"You know the end of the war?" Sokka's eyes lit up as all of the possibilities flashed through his mind.

Eira held up a hand to stop him before he said anything. "Just know that I'm not infallible. Small events like this wouldn't be affected, but key events _have_ changed, at least somewhat. I don't know everything, and honestly, I don't want to become the psychic consultant. I feel like that would seriously mess things up."

"She has a point," Toph noted.

Sokka seemed to deflate. He looked at Eira hopefully.

"Alright, I'm not going to pressure you for information, but can you help out with the invasion plan? It'd be nice to know at least one possibility of how things will turn out."

Eira pursed her lips. "Thing is, the things I've changed, I think it will have affected that the most. I can't really help you with it in that way. But I promise that I'll do as much as I can to make sure it succeeds."

"Thanks."

Suddenly, someone mimicking explosions and the sound of laughter distracted them. Aang and Katara came strolling into view and there was a flicker of surprise and even distrust across Katara's face as she noticed them all awake and with Eira talking with them.

"Hi, Sokka, we were just out on a morning walk," Katara lied, though it was clear that no one, including her, bought it.

Sokka shook her stuffed sleeping bag in her direction, straw flying out of it. "Oh really, a morning walk? I know you're the Painted Lady, and I know you've been sneaking out, I know you've been purplising Appa's tongue with berries, and I know that you've just blown up that factory."

Katara narrowed her eyes at Eira. "I guess she told you."

"Don't blame her," Sokka snapped. "Katara, you've put our whole mission in jeopardy and we're leaving right now!"

Katara's stern expression broke down. She looked at the floor sadly and walked past Sokka to pack up.

Everyone else did the same. The whole time was spent in bitter and heavy silence and it was weighing down on Eira pretty hard. She hoped she didn't make everything worse.

"What's that sound?" Eira asked, suddenly picking up a loud buzzing sound. She ran over to the river and gasped. The factory workers were sailing over towards the village on loud jet ski-like machines.

"They're heading towards the village!" Eira announced in a high, panicked voice.

"They're going there for revenge! Katara, this is your fault!" Sokka exclaimed.

"What was I supposed to do instead? The factory was _killing_ this village!"

"Leave!" Sokka snapped, throwing up his arms. "Do nothing!"

Katara clenched her fists. "No, I will never, _ever_ turn my back on people who need my help." Katara walked towards the river. "And I'm going to do whatever I can to help _them_."

Sokka reached out for her as she walked away.

"I'm coming, too," he said, voice softening.

"I thought you didn't want to help."

"You need me, and you're my sister. I will never turn my back on you," Sokka said. Katara smiled and the two of them hugged.

"Sokka, you really do have a heart."

Aang wiped away tears. "He really does have a heart, doesn't he?" He turned to Toph for confirmation, but she simply elbowed him and he fell sideways with a thump.

Eira smiled slyly. "Why not make this a show too? They'll see what you can do when you're helping people."

Katara put her disguise back on and after a quick planning, everyone got into position.

The burly man who was complaining at the factory stood in the centre of the village, hand full of fire as he leered threateningly at the villagers.

"I thought we could live as neighbours, in peace, but I guess I was wrong. You steal our food, our medicine ... and then you destroy our factory," he said.

"We didn't do any of that!" Dock protested, popping out of the crowd before ducking back in and out, now with Xu's hat on. "Yeah, the Painted Lady brought us food. She's the one that healed our sick, not your medicine."

The man took one of the Painted Lady figurines. "Ah, yes. The mysterious Painted Lady did it." He glared at the villagers. "Then I guess she painted the army emblem on your containers too!" He kicked one of the containers over, the red seal of the Fire Nation standing out clearly. He smashed the figurine under his foot. "This is a town of liars and thieves!" he spat, throwing the fire at one of the houses. It burst into red light as the fire caught the wood. "Where's your painted lady now?"

The rest of the soldiers span around the village with large destructive hooks, splintering the wooden supports and houses as the crashed through. The crowd screamed as everything seemed to explode around them, but they all had nowhere to go.

One of the men lit a flammable ball, preparing to send it barrelling through, but a gust of misty air lashed out, putting it out. The man looked confused, lighting it again but as soon as he did the air put it out.

"Light it again!" The captain snarled. The man hurried to relight it but the air kept putting it out.

Mist snaked its way across the water. Flute music slowly filled the air, as if it was being carried by the mist itself. The soldiers stopped as a cold wind passed through and a deafening silence hung over them.

"Where's it coming from?" A female soldier asked nervously. The mist thickened into fog and it flowed in around their feet. One of the male soldiers picked his feet up and stepped backwards, as if not wanting to make any contact with it.

"I don't know. Something strange is going on."

Aang growled. The low, loud sound echoed in the fog and the soldiers were losing their composure.

A little boy from the crowd clung to his mother as he stared at the captain. "It's the Painted Lady." He grinned slyly, adding in an ominous sing-song voice. "She's com-ing."

"There's no Painted Lady!" The captain snarled, his hand re-filling with fire.

Toph took two large rocks and slammed them against the floor. She repeated it over and over, making the effect of a large monster's slow footsteps. Aang growled again and Sokka's flute playing grew louder. The noise swelled and the soldiers grouped together, unnerved.

"What is that sound?"

"Maybe it _is_ her."

The fog began to part. It revealed Katara, in full Painted Lady regalia. She hung in the air for a second, before rushing them, water spraying behind her as the water flew up. The water out out any and all fire left and she stopped near the dock. Supported in the air by her waterbending, making her look like a creepy ghost. She turned slowly, her face shadowed by her hat as she faced the captain and his soldiers.

"Do something!" The captain ordered.

The soldiers shared unsure looked but they move forwards timidly. Eira blasted them all with of air, buffeting them back from below the dock. They fell back only to be buffeted by another gust. Eira smiled as she pushed them back and forth, left and right from below them.

Some of them screamed and they fled to their remaining jet skis and they sailed off, leaving their leader.

He looked around for support and snarled when he realised her was alone. "I'll take care of you myself!" He swung his arms in a large arc and a whip of fire was sent flying towards Katara. Aang joined Eira under the dock and the two of them propelled Katara up into the air, the fire flying harmlessly beneath her.

The man's face fell and Eira smirked as his eyes widened in fear. Aang slashed upwards, splitting the dock in two and the man fell into the river, looking absolutely terrified.

He floundered in the water and Katara rose back out of the river, raising her arms threateningly. "Leave this village and _NEVER_ come back."

He flailed his arms and scrambled backwards, trying to swim away from her. One of his men zipped past on his jet ski, picking him out of the water and they sailed into the distance, out of sight.

Eira and Aang climbed out, sneaking into the crowd where Sokka and Toph had also returned to.

Katara sank back onto the dock, the water holding her dripping away, back into the river.

The little boy beamed at her. "I knew you'd come."

"Thank you!"

"Painted Lady, you're the best!"

Dock walked out of the crowd and bowed to her. "Me and my brothers really owe you a lot." He looked up and quickly stepped back, narrowing his eyes. "Hey, wait a minute! I know you! You're not the Painted Lady, you're that colonial girl!"

Katara raised a hand to her face, seeing that her make-up had smudged.

"You're the lady that game me a fish," the little boy noted.

Dock pointed at her angrily. "You've been tricking us. You're a waterbender!"

The crowd exploded with hissing and anger. The people surged forwards, ready to throw her out and Eira couldn't believe them. They knew that she had given them their supplies, healed them, and drove off the factory workers who had been destroying their lives, and they were _angry_ at her?!

Eira and Sokka ran out of the crowd, standing defensively in front of Katara.

"So what?!" Eira shouted. "She's a waterbender. She's also a waterbender who just saved all of you. She's ten times better than any spirit."

"Yeah!" Sokka agreed. "Because of her, that factory won't be polluting your river, the army is gone, and you're not sick. You should all be on your knees thanking her!"

"It's okay," Katara said, quietly, stepping past Eira and Sokka to talk to the crowd. "I shouldn't have acted like someone I'm not, and I shouldn't have tricked you. But I felt like I needed to do something because it doesn't matter whether or not the Painted Lady is real, because you're problems are real and you can't just wait for someone to help you. You need to help yourself."

Dock looked down, thoughtful, before turning to the rest of the village.

"She's right," he admitted. He looked up at Katara. "But what can we do?"

"Maybe we can clean the river!" Toph called out from the crowd, lowering her voice.

Dock hit his fist on his palm. "Of course, let's clean the river!"

The crowd cheered and Dock tipped his hat to Katara. "Thank you, and sorry for that. You know, you're not so bad for a waterbender."

"You wouldn't mind keeping that a secret, by the way, would you?" Sokka said hopefully.

Dock put his hand to his chest. "No problem. Keeping my mouth shut is a personal specialty. My brother Xu, on the other hand, ohh, he's a bladdermouth."

Sokka facepalmed and Eira sighed. She was beginning to understand the expression "as mad as a hatter".

"So, Dock, are you going to help clean?" Katara asked.

He shook his head. "No, ma'am. I'm going to get my other brother, Bushi. He loves cleaning." He pulled out another hat and replaced the one on his head. "Alright, I'm Bushi! Let's get some river cleaning done!"

Aang laughed confidently. "Aha, I knew it! I knew you were the same guy. You're the shop owner _and_ the boast guy."

"Oh, you must be talking about my brothers," Dock, or Bushi, said.

"But, we just saw you!" Aang insisted. "You switched hats and called yourself a different name!"

Dock chuckled. "Oh, you know who does that? My brother, Dock." He leaned close to Aang and added in a whisper. "He's crazy." Before walking off to help the rest of the village.

They all spent the rest of the day helping out the town clean the river. It was disgusting and by the end of the day, all Eira wanted was a nice shower, but they had made good progress and everyone was in a substantially better mood when they went back to their campsite, ready for one more sleep before setting off in the morning.

Katara and Eira were talking while looking out on the river, both apologising to each other, when clouds of fog suddenly surrounded them, a tall figure appearing through the clouds. A beautiful woman with pure white skin, red stripes over her face and arms and a misty veil drifting from her hat and blending into the fog.

"Thank you," she said in an insubstantial voice that echoed all around them.

Eira didn't even think. Her first reaction was just to lob a stone and yell. It sailed through the mist and with a smile, the spirit vanished.

Katara looked shocked, but it faded into a smile.

"I have a feeling you don't like spirits," she teased.

"Ha ha. I wonder why," Eira deadpanned.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading :D**

 **Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Next chapter, yay!**

 **This one was hard to write from Eira's perspective since this was a Sokka episode, but I hope I did okay.**

 **Thanks to lostgamer64 for reviewing again, you're really awesome! And thanks to Elemelons164 for reviewing. I'm glad you like this so far.**

 **Your reviews really help motivate me :D**

* * *

Chapter 4- Sokka's Master

* * *

"Wow," Eira gasped in awe as another shooting star flashed across the night sky. There were so many stars and a meteor shot by almost every couple of seconds. It was the first time Eira had ever seen a meteor shower. Whenever she thought she saw one before, it just turned out to be a helicopter.

They were all lying back on a field, watching the sky. Aang had been the first to spot it and they'd all stopped to admire the sight.

Their campsite was a nice, cool place. A river snaked its way by the base of the mountains and hills and it was very pretty, even at night.

"This is amazing to watch," Katara said.

"Kind of makes you realise how insignificant we are," Sokka added philosophically.

Eira admitted to herself that he had a point. The stars looked so small but they were thousands of lightyears away, and their light still reached them.

"Eh, you've seen nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times," Toph said casually.

Then, out of the blue, they all spotted a particularly bright meteor that wasn't going away. It appeared thebe getting brighter and bright, bursting with orange flames, and, startlingly, it was getting bigger.

"Oh man," Sokka said, standing up. "You've _never_ not seen anything like this."

Eira, Aang, and Katara also stood up, growing nervous. It flew past them overhead and with a loud rumble it crash landed.

They all scrambled up the hill to look at the crash site. It was quite a distance away, but, unnervingly, an orange glow was spreading from it.

"We have to stop that before it escalates," Eira stated. "The Fire Nation doesn't have a lot of rain. A fire could be devastating."

They all nodded and ran back to Appa, quickly throwing their things on the saddle and climbing on. Appa took off with great haste but by the time they got there the fire was already starting to grow.

Katara scanned the area, leaning over the side of the saddle, and her eyes widened in horror. "The fire is gonna destroy that town!" she cried, pointing to the nearby collection of buildings.

"Not if we stop it!" Aang said, making Appa land and jumping off. Eira, Sokka, and Toph followed him as Katara moved to take Appa's reigns.

"There's a creek over there," she said, pointing the right of the fire. "I'll bend the water over."

"I'm going to go near the town. It's dark and most people will be asleep so I'll warn them if the fire gets too close," Eira said, starting to run off to the left.

Eira skirted around the growing fire, making sure not to get too close to it. She jumped up onto a short ledge to get a clear view. From there she could see much better. To her left was a medium-sized village with mainly wood buildings but some stone from what she could guess in the darkness. It would be a disaster if the fire got anywhere near it. Even though they were in the _Fire_ Nation, Eira guessed that they weren't well equipped to handle it.

Toph and Aang stood in the way of the fire, using their earthbending to created deep trenches of earth to block its path. Eira was surprised at how loud it was, crackling and roaring as it burnt. The heat was also surprising. Even from her distance, she could feel the rising temperature causing her to sweat.

Katara pulled the water from the river, sending it in a large arc flying towards Aang and Toph. Aang stopped with his earthbending and redirected the water towards the fire. The two of them continued this stream together and a large hiss of steam billowed up into the air.

Toph jutted out her foot and fist and a large slab of earth sprung up. She knocked her hand to the side in the air and it toppled right onto the fire, smothering it. Aang took some of the water and with a burst of airbending he spread it all over the area, dampening the flames. The three of them continued this cycle, stamping out all remaining sparks as they moved closer and closer to the crash site.

Toph earthbent her slab to roll over the steaming ground and Eira smiled in relief, glancing back at the village. Luckily she wouldn't need to scare anyone awake. Eira jogged back, treading over the ashy ground and joined the rest of them just as they put out the last spark.

Eira grinned at them. "Well done, everyone. You made me feel a bit useless you did that so well."

Sokka made a sour face at that remark and like a switch, Eira recognised the episode. Now she felt really bad.

Aang yawned, not really noticing Sokka's expression. "Man, I'm tired. That took a lot out of me."

"Yeah," Katara agreed. "We should probably go back to camp and get some rest."

"Sound good to me," Toph said. The adrenaline of dealing with the fire was fading and they all looked exhausted. A lot more exhausted than either Eira or Sokka. They all climbed up onto Appa's saddle again and it took no time at all to re-set up camp and sleep.

Eira stayed awake a little longer than the others though. She honestly didn't know how she was going to handle to next day or two. She didn't really remember a lot from the episode.

o.O.o

The next day they all went into the town. It was a very warm and rich-ish place. The wood and stone building Eira had picked out the previous night were very well built, with intricate roof decorations, tall walls, and multi-stories.

Eira, Katara, and Toph were all sat at a table in an outdoor restaurant. The place was nice, if a bit expensive. At least, Eira assumed it was expensive. She didn't quite understand how their coin systems worked or the value. It seemed to fluctuate heavily from the Earth Kingdom to the Fire Nation and she hadn't been in the Fire Nation long enough to grasp it.

"These people have no idea," Aang said, joining them at the table with drinks, "how close they were to getting roasted last night."

"Yeah, the worst thing about being in disguise is that we don't get the hero worship anymore." Toph leant back on her chair. "I miss the love."

"You should probably be a bit quieter," Eira commented in a low voice. Toph especially seemed to forget that they were in disguise for a reason.

"Boo hoo," Sokka said sarcastically, a grumpy expression on his face as he rested it on his fist. "Poor heroes." He turned his face away from them.

"What's your problem?" Katara demanded. "You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug," she noted, gesturing to the reason Eira wasn't particularly hungry. She probably needed to be more adventurous but why did everything have to be so… slimy?

"It's just…" he sighed exasperatedly. "All you guys can do this awesome bending stuff like putting out forest fires, and flying around while making other stuff fly around. And I can't fly around, okay?" he admitted, gesturing with his hands. He looked surprisingly defeated, not at all like he usually was. "I can't _do_ anything."

"That's not true," Katara insisted. "No one can read a map like you."

"I can't read at all!" Toph added.

Eira looked concerned at him. "Look, Sokka. Just because you're not a bender doesn't mean you're useless," she said reassuringly. "You're a brilliant strategist. Without you, the… _invasion plan_ ," Eira said in a quiet voice so no one could overhear them," wouldn't nearly be as complete or refined. You're organised and put the needs of others before your own. Even though you went a bit overboard, you really do keep us on track."

"And you keep us laughing with sarcastic comments," Aang said cheerfully. "I mean, look at Katara's hair, right? What's up with that?"

"What? What's wrong with my hair?" Katara asked, touching her hair self-consciously while going red.

Aang realised that his attempt at "joking" was a mistake very quickly. "Nothing! I was just trying to…"

Sokka held out his hand to stop him. "Look, I appreciate the effort but the fact is each of you is so amazing and so special and I'm… not." He looked up at the sky. "I'm just the guy in the group who's regular.

Katara got up from her seat and sat next to her brother, looking concerned for him. "I'm sorry you're feeling so down, but I hope you know that none of us see you that way." Katara looked down, thinking, before putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know something that's going to make you feel better," she said confidently.

"You do?" Sokka turned to his sister, curious.

"Shopping!" he said cheerfully, clapping his hands together and gazing at all of the weapons, armour, and other battle-related things with pure glee.

He ran over to look at the weapon section and picked up a sword. "Maybe a little something to reinvigorate my battling." He put the sword down and picked up some nunchaku. "Hey, how about these."

He spun them around in his hand, making exaggerated attacking noises and gestures but one span around, smacking him in the head and sending him tumbling backwards into the other weapons.

Eira winced. That looked painful. "Are you okay, Sokka?" she asked, pulling him up from the pile.

"Never better," he said nonchalantly, even as his forehead was looked stung with a big red welt.

"Maybe you should try something closer to your skills," Eira commented. "You have a machete and club, right?"

Sokka nodded. "But they kind of stick out here so they're still with Appa."

Eira nodded in understanding and as she looked around to inspect the swords, she stopped in her tracks and burst out laughing.

"Aang, what _are_ you wearing?" she asked, incredulous.

Aang, a short twelve-year old, was dressed in the most ridiculous and overly-intimidating armour she had ever seen. His helmet resembled a dragon skull with massive shinning horns curling from both sides and beady jewelled eyes. His chest plate had abs carved into them, one of his gauntlets was a large clawed paw of sorts, spikes jutted out of the skull shoulder plates, and a _buzz saw_ was attached to his arm.

He waddled forwards in his ridiculous get up, clunking from the metal layers. "Pretty slick, huh?"

Katara and Sokka looked at him with a mix of horror, surprise, and disbelief. Katara held up a hand to block her eyes from the shine as she approached.

"All I need to complete this outfit is a wind sword?" he continued.

"A wind sword?" Eira asked, curious.

"It's where I get a sword handle and then I just swing it around and bend air out like a blade," he explained. He picked up a sword handle from a nearby shelf and swung it around like a sword while making swishing sounds. "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Eira was wondering if that was a real thing you could do with airbending. It sounded a lot more… dangerous than other things she knew about airbending. She knew that airbending could definitely be dangerous, but the nomads sounded too peaceful to ever invent something like that.

He swung the "sword" upwards and toppled, losing balance. He and the armour fell with a spectacular _BANG!_ Eira, Katara, and Sokka clamped their hands over their ears to block it out.

Aang sat up, looking dizzy from banging his head inside the helmet. "I'll just stick to what I got," he said wearily.

Sokka recovered and picked up a guan dao, a curved blade mounted on a staff with a red ribbon tied through a hole in the metal. He swung it from side to side before spinning it in a circle like a baton dancer and flung it up into the air, sticking into the ceiling.

Sokka stared up at his, holding his hands out innocently. Next one.

Sokka picked out a metal club almost as ridiculous as Aang's armour. It was far too heavy for him to even lift off the ground. He scraped the enormous thing across the floor with a horrid screech like nails on a chalkboard. He groaned with exertion as he did his best to lift it but lost his grip and fell to the floor.

He tried out dual swords, spinning a chain around and causing himself to get caught up instead, trying to stab the air with a wobbly, too long spear, using a sai (as a toothpick). Eira found it strange that he was trying out all those types of weapons that he had never used before but she guessed that Sokka wanted something that would stand out.

Sokka looked around, growing increasingly dissatisfied, but held his gaze on a sword propped up on a smooth, polished sword rack.

Its blade was shining with light and looked sharp. Its hilt was made of polished red word. It looked simple, but obviously well made. The pommel was painted gold with a flower design engraved at the base.

"Ooh!" Sokka ran over to it, taking in every inch of it. " _That's_ what I'm talking about."

The shopkeeper, who had mainly been writing them off as just window shoppers, saw Sokka take an interest in the sword and walked over.

"You have a good eye," he noted. "That's an original from Piandao, the greatest swordsmaster and sword maker in Fire Nation history." He pointed out of the shop towards the walled mansion overlooking the town. "He lives up the road from here."

"That's it!" Aang exclaimed. "That's what you needed all along, Sokka?"

"A sword?" Sokka guessed, looking at the one on display.

"Not the sword, a master," Aang explained. Sokka reached out to take the sword from the rack. "We've all had masters to help us get better. You should see if you can study with Piandao."

Katara nodded, smiling. "That's a great idea. I never could've gotten to where I am without Master Pakku. Everyone needs a teacher."

"I learned from badgermoles," Toph offered. "They don't talk, but they're still good teachers."

"And Aang is a good teacher, even though I learnt a lot of the forms, I guess, from the Shifu at the dojo I went to," Eira added.

Sokka pulled out the blade and inspected it, thinking. "It would be nice to be a master swordfighter," he mused. "All right, I'll talk to him."

"Great, we'll see you off there," Aang said.

They all walked out of the shop and as they did, Eira could see Sokka's mood picking up. She smiled in relief.

The mansion was situated on top of a large bluff. The white walls surrounding it were broken by a tall red wooden gate. It looked very well crafted and very expensive. It was clear that being the best swordsman in the Fire Nation was quite a lucrative job.

Sokka looked tiny as he looked up at the tall walls and gate, but he steeled himself. He was going to do this. He turned back to the rest of the group.

"Thanks, guys. You can go now," he said. "I can take it from here."

"Good luck," Eira said. "You'll do great."

"Thanks."

"Bye!" Aang said cheerily, waving goodbye as they all wandered back down into the town.

Katara kept on glancing back. "I hope he'll be alright," she said.

"Don't worry about Sokka," Eira said reassuringly. "This will be good for him, he needs this."

They continued to walk out of the town, back to their campsite in the middle of the countryside. Appa was sleeping peacefully in the grass and Momo flew about, trying to catch the little midges flying around and buzzing.

Aang and Katara chatted about nothing in particular and Eira reached into her bag to begin writing. Even though she didn't want to become the psychic consultant for the war and the invasion, she still wanted to try and see where she would be able to help. She'd been thinking about possible things that Jianguo, Teo's father and the inventor from the Northern Air Temple, could make for the invasion. She would often suggest ideas, and Sokka would write them down or conceptualise them.

So far, they'd come up with a clock/watch, a water-bender powered submarine, and different types of flash bomb grenades for distractions.

On that note, Eira realised that she really couldn't continue. She still couldn't write. Sokka had been teaching her a couple of things, but they had found it much quicker for him to just transcribe everything for her. In the middle of planning a war, there wasn't a lot of time.

So, Eira just spent her time uselessly scribbling on some paper. Everything she thought of doing felt silly or a waste of time.

They could go back into town, but they had already got everything they needed in the morning and it was too early for another meal. They could all continue with their bending training, but even this far away from the town, they were still too obvious. It would be too risky.

Eira wasn't sure what the other wanted to do. Eira was pretty introverted so, if pushed, she could spend the hours just thinking to herself, but the others were younger and more extroverted than her. She doubted they would be able to do the same without going stir crazy.

"What should we do today?" Aang asked as he, Katara, and Toph lay about lazily on the grass. Each of them looked incredibly bored. Momo ran through the grass before setting near Katara, happy with a bug he had caught.

"I'm tapped out," Toph admitted." I've already picked my toes, twice."

"Twice?" Aang said.

"The first time was for cleaning, but the second time's just for the sweet picking sensation," Toph explained. Eira stuck her tongue out in disgust. Blech.

"Sokka's been in charge of the schedule. I'm not sure what we should be doing," Katara said, staring up at the sky.

"Plus, it's so hot today," Toph added.

Aang sat up, an idea popping in his head. "How hot is it?" he said, trying to set up a joke of some kind.

It was too bad Toph didn't have anywhere to lead it. "I dunno. Rea hot?"

Katara looked around. "I-It's so hot… It's _so_ hot…" Her eyes settled on Momo. She stroked him and flicked tufts of fur from her fingers. "Momo is shedding like Appa. Huh?"

She looked around expectantly but no one was laughing. Her face fell, clearly disappointed.

"I guess jokes don't run in the family," Aang said.

"Oh, everyone's a critic," Katara huffed.

"Well, Sokka's humour is either from just acting silly to his surroundings," Eira explained. "Or being deadpan or sarcastic. I honestly don't know what _you_ were trying to do."

"Don't you have Sokka's schedule," Katara said sharply. She was surprisingly wounded by her lack of joking ability.

"Okay, I'll see what's on it," Eira said, rummaging through her bag and pulling out the revised version. He'd cut out a lot of unnecessary events from it, such as monitoring their eating breaks down to the minute, so it was thankfully shorter.

"All it has for today was 'Go into town for supplies'," Eira said. "I guess in these cases, we do just go into a town and continue travelling, or get side-tracked by some event."

"Did you remember anything we can do?" Aang asked hopefully.

Eira grimaced. All _they_ did was lie around being bored to learn to appreciate Sokka. "I… Uh, aside from knowing that Sokka gets accepted into training, I don't know anything. I don't think I saw what happened with you guys."

"Then what _should_ we do?" he asked.

"What do you mean, Aang?"

"You're the oldest, and you're usually the one making plans, after Sokka," he explained. "What should we do?"

Eira felt very put-on-the-spot. She felt he face turning red. "I'm not good at making plans, guys. I'm not organised or smart enough for that. I think the best we can do is wait and remember this is for Sokka's sake."

The others visibly looked disappointed and slumped back down onto the ground.

"Guys, if you're that bored then I don't really know what to tell you," Eira sighed. "But on the bright side, things will be even better when Sokka arrives."

And Eira was right. They were all bored. Very bored, in fact, Eira thought they fell asleep, but after about an hour of waiting.

"Sokka's coming!" Toph announced, sitting bolt upright.

Katara and Aang opened their eyes, smiling excitedly. Eira looked up and, sure enough, Sokka was walking up to the top of the hill.

"Hey, guys," he said casually, waving. "What are you doing?"

Katara, Aang, and Toph practically knocked him over as they ran to give him a group hug.

"Sokka!

"You're back!"

"We missed you so much!" Katara said. Eira almost couldn't stop herself from laughing. It had only been just over half a day.

They stepped back from the group hug. "Say something funny!" Aang insisted.

Sokka stared at him, confused. "Funny how?"

Aang and Katara burst out into hearty laughter. Toph smiled, crossing her arms.

Sokka looked to Eira helplessly. "What's their deal?" he asked.

"They _really_ missed you," she explained with a smile on her face. "Apparently, I'm not very entertaining to be around."

"Aw, thanks. That's warms my heart," he said, putting a hand to his chest. "Anyway, I need some help."

"What is it?" Katara asked.

"I need to forge my own sword, and I'd like to get a special material."

Sokka lead them back towards the ashy area where they had put out the fire, and down into a small valley.

They all stood at the edge of a blackened crater. Burn marks and random clumps of stone and earth littered the site but at the very centre, there was a slightly shiny black lump.

"The meteorite?" Aang said, staring at it. "Cool."

They slid down the side of the crater and stepped around the rubble. Sokka reached down to pick it up. It was bigger than Eira had thought. For some reason, she had always remembered it as a tiny thing that was only as big as her foot. This, on the other hand, was about quadruple the size. Big enough to make a sword from.

"It would be pretty cool to have a sword made from a meteorite," Eira said. "But how do you know you can use it?"

"Well, it's in one piece after crashing down," Sokka said, tapping his knuckle on it. "So it's pretty strong." He then gestured to the small melted shards around it. "And it _can_ melt, and be pretty sharp." To demonstrate, he picked up on of the sharps and tossed it downwards. It sank into the ground without any resistance.

Eira nodded. "That's pretty interesting. I wish I knew more about swords."

Sokka clapped his hands together. "Then come on. I have to get this back to master Piandao."

The difference in Sokka's attitude was almost outstanding. He held himself more confidently and he looked happy again.

They walked all the way up to Piandao's mansion, and Sokka knocked on the gate door.

A man in a traditional black and red martial arts outfit opened the door. He had dark skin and hair as well as a cool beard. He looked pretty stern, and very disciplined.

He nodded in acknowledgement of Sokka, but cast suspicious looks at the rest of the group behind him.

"Who's this?" he asked.

"Oh, these are my friends," Sokka said quickly. "Just other good Fire Nation folks."

Aang, Katara, and Toph bowed in respect, with Eira repeating the action after a few seconds delay. She never knew when to do the whole bowing thing.

Piandao bowed back. He looked down at the meteorite in Sokka's hands and gave him a questioning look. "Do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?" Sokka asked hopefully.

Piandao took the meteorite and inspected it closely.

He gave Sokka a small smile. "We'll make a sword unlike any other in the world." Sokka beamed.

Piandao led them to the forge. It was boiling as fire burst out from all over the place. It was dark, dirty, and small, but Sokka never looked happier.

Sokka went to work straight away as the others watched him. Eira would've loved to help, but this was something Sokka needed to do without them.

He threw coal into the fires with a small spade to heat up the meteorite. Piandao's assistant hammered the metal as Sokka chiselled it into shape. He cut pieces off to try and get it to the right size, filling a bucket with fragments.

It was fascinating to watch. Sokka worked at the bellows diligently, shovelling more coal into the fire when needed.

Eira, Aang, and Katara weren't the only ones watching Sokka's process. Piandao observed his work from outside with a neutral expression, making it hard to guess what he was thinking.

Sokka worked for hours and hours, but finally, nearing the end of the day it was almost done. He took a bucket of molten metal from the fire with iron tongs and poured it into the mold.

As the metal glowed red with heat, Piandao raised the blade up, looking carefully at every inch.

Sokka looked up at him hopefully, and Piandao nodded.

"It is ready," he said. He carried the blade over to a water trough and dipped it in, sending hissing steam flying upwards.

They all sat on the stairs in Piandao's courtyard, watching anxiously as Piandao stood before Sokka. Piandao's assistant held the impressive black blade in his hands, standing to the side of them. "Sokka, when you first arrived, you were so unsure," he said. "You seemed down on yourself. But I saw something in you right away. I saw a heart as strong as a lion-turtle, and twice as big."

Katara glowed with pride for her brother.

"As we trained, it wasn't your skills that impressed me," he continued as his assistant knelt before him to present the sword. "No, it certainly wasn't your skills."

 _Well, that's a bit harsh,_ Eira thought critically as Sokka hung his head at Piandao's words.

"You showed me something beyond that." Piandao took the sword and swung it. "Intelligence." He swung it again, striking the air with perfect form. "Creativity, versatility… These are the traits of a _great_ swordsman." Piandao sheathed the sword. "And these are the traits that define _you_."

He knelt before Sokka, raising the sword to him.

Sokka looked speechless. He held out his hand, and slowly took it from him.

"You told me you weren't worthy," Piandao said, standing back up to look Sokka in the eyes. "But I believe that you are more worthy than any man I have ever trained."

Eira, Aang, Katara, and Toph all smiled, but Sokka lowered his head in shame, and their smiles faded.

"I'm sorry, Master," he said solemnly. "You're wrong. I'm not worthy. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not from the Fire Nation. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe." Katara gasped and they all gawked at him. "I lied so that I could learn swordsmanship from you. I'm sorry."

Sokka held out to sword to give it back to Piandao.

Piandao regarded Sokka with a cold stare. "I'm sorry too."

He turned and lashed out with his sword. Sokka jumped back, gasping in shock. He got over it quickly, unsheathing his own sword and steeling himself.

Aang, Katara, Toph, and Eira all jumped up from their seats, prepared to help defend their friend but Sokka raised a hand, stopping them.

"No, this is my fight, alone," he said shortly.

Sokka readied his sword. Piandao's sword aimed at the ground while his hand was raised and pointed. He lunged forwards. Sokka backed away under the strikes. Sokka raised his sword to parry and followed up with one of his own. He jabbed it at Piandao. Piandao moved his head out of the way and stabbed his sword towards Sokka.

Sokka swayed backwards, narrowly avoiding it. Piandao swung his sword in a wide sweep and Sokka jumped up, lunging at him.

Piandao's sword jerked upwards, deflecting the attack with a loud _clang_ of metal-against-metal. The force pushed Sokka back several feet and he slid over the ground. Sokka flipped himself backwards to get into position, grabbing hold of a small post to regain his balance.

He climbed onto it as Piandao tried to stab at his feet. Sokka jumped from post to post, using his greater speed.

As Sokka leapt away from the posts, he ran into better space.

"Excellent!" Piandao congratulated him. "Using superior agility against an older opponent… smart."

Sokka didn't take it as a good sign that Piandao could talk so casually to him as they fought.

Piandao pushed him up the stone stairs, assaulting him with strike after strike. Sokka parried and dodged like his life was on the line.

Sokka backed up against the wall. He ducked just as Piandao swung. His sword embedded itself into the stone. He tugged it out just in time to deflect the blow Sokka aimed at him.

Sokka climbed up to higher ground. "Good use of terrain… fighting from an advantage," Piandao commented.

Sokka swung at Piandao below him. Piandao thrust his sword upwards, throwing him off balance. He grunted as he fell back into a collection of bamboo.

Katara winced. Sokka had to duck again as Piandao sliced through the bamboo like it was nothing. Sokka was starting to look scared, strands of hair falling out of his topknot into his face.

He ran further into the bamboo, trying to lose his chaser. He slashed at the bamboo to block Piandao but the master easily cut through them.

Sokka pulled a bamboo stalk, releasing it to hit Piandao. He once again cut through it, but Sokka had vanished from his line of sight. Sokka jumped at him from behind. "Yes, use your surroundings." Piandao blocked the attack as Sokka ran back again.

He pulled on two more bamboo stalks before releasing them. They whipped around towards Piandao before being split in half. "Make them fight for you!"

Sokka ran back out of the bamboo thicket and back into the fighting ring as Piandao finally chased him out. He was screaming from exhaustion and fear. He looked around. Piandao had vanished off to the side before readying a strike.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion. As the blade arched towards Sokka, he grabbed a handful of dust and threw it at his master. The dust exploded into a cloud as it struck Piandao's face. Piandao swung his blade around, holding it defensively as he couldn't see anything, the dust blinding him.

"Very resourceful."

Sokka nervously raised his sword, not wanting to make any sound. He slowly stepped backwards. _CRACK!_ Sokka's foot stepped on a twig and Piandao rushed forwards with his sword. Piandao closed in, catching Sokka's sword with his own. He twisted and the sword went flying. It landed a good couple of meters away, stabbing into the ground.

Piandao struck again, but not with his blade. He pushed Sokka backwards with his arms. Sokka hit the ground on his back, winded. All he could do was look up fearfully at Piandao.

Aang, Katara, Toph, and Eira surged forwards, but before they could do anything, Piandao looked towards them and sheathed his sword.

"Excellent work, Sokka," Piandao said.

Sokka squinted at him, not wanting to let his guard down.

Piandao looked right at Aang. "I think I'm a little too old to be fighting the Avatar," he said.

They all dropped their bending stances.

"How did you know?" Aang asked, incredulous.

Piandao's assistant walked over, holding a drink and a white cloth for Piandao as Sokka stood back up.

"Oh, I've been around for a while," he said vaguely. "You start to pick things up." He took the cloth and wiped his face. "Of course, I knew from the beginning that Sokka was from the Water Tribe. You might want to think of a better cover name." He looked up thoughtfully. "Try 'Lee'. There are a million 'Lees'." He took a sip of his drink, not caring about how utterly confused Katara, Aang, Toph, and Sokka were.

Of course, Eira knew what was going on. Looking back on it, she knew that Piandao wasn't going to hurt Sokka, but the rush of the moment got to her. It was still pretty scary watching someone attacking your friend with a sword.

"But why would you agree to train someone from the Water Tribe?" Katara asked.

"The way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation. Knowledge of the arts belong to all." Katara still looked like she didn't get it. Eira didn't blame her.

Piandao pulled Sokka's sword out of the ground. "Sokka, you must continue your training on your own. If you stay on this path, I know one day you will become an even greater master than I am."

Sokka bowed to his teacher as he took the sword and Piandao bowed back in mutual respect.

The group walked out of the gate doors, all quite tired. That was certainly enough excitement to make up for the boredom of their morning and afternoon.

"Wait!" Piandao's assistant came running out after them, holding a tiny brown bag. "The Master wanted you to have this, as something to remember him by."

He gave the bag to Sokka before waving his farewells and closing the gate doors behind him.

Sokka opened the bag and pulled out a game tile with a white lotus painted on the sides.

"It's a Pai Sho tile," Sokka said, turning it around in his hand.

"What's Pai Sho?" Eira asked.

"It's a board game. Different tiles do different thing," he explained. "Most people play it to gamble."

"That's interesting," Eira mused.

Aang stared at the flower painted on the tile. "White Lotus. Huh."

"What does it mean?" Katara asked.

"I have no idea," Sokka admitted. "Eira? Any clue?"

Eira put her hand to her chin. "Hm... I think all I can really say is that it means that he's on our side. And there are more like him."

Sokka flipped the tile in his hand and he smiled. "Well, that's good." His eyes widened. "Oh, I almost forgot." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small chunk of meteorite. "Toph, I thought you might like this since you've probably never had a chance to bend space earth before."

Toph snatched it out of his hand. "Sweet!" The meteorite swirled in her hand, almost like it was liquid. She bent it into a swirl, a star, and a weird splatter shape. "Check this out," she said proudly.

"Okay, that looks amazing," Eira said. Eira looked out onto the horizon. The sun was beginning to set. "Well, it's getting late. We should get back to the camp now."

Sokka yawned, nodding. "Yeah. That's probably for the best. I'm exhausted."

"You know, I don't think there's such a thing as 'space earth'," Katara commented randomly as they made their way down. "I mean, if it's form space, then it's not really 'earth'."

Sokka shot her a look. "Must you ruin everything?"

Katara laughed, shaking her head. "I can't believe I missed you."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading :D**

 **Please review and tell me what you think!**


	5. Update

Hey, with the next few chapters, I'm a bit stuck. This is the reason I haven't updated in 2 months.  
The next episodes of A:TLA don't really have enough that I can work with to keep up my usual chapter lengths. I could do this in a few ways: Combine into one chapter, upload several small chapters, or timeskips.

What do you guys think?


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